A Viking Christmas
by Alylonna
Summary: Eric returns to Scotland for Christmas and, of course, nothing goes quite to plan.  sequel to entry for HSHContest which hasn't yet been published .
1. Chapter 1

I didn't know why I was holding my breath as I waited for someone to answer the phone but I guessed it was because I had never called Eric at work before and I wasn't sure how he'd take it. He hadn't answered his mobile or his house phone and I really needed to speak to him so here I was, calling a Vampire bar. How curious the world has become.

"Fangtasia...the home of killer hickies." She sounded terribly bored and it didn't help my nervousness.

"Hi." I said I little awkwardly. "It's Rebecca from Scotland, I was wondering if I could speak to Eric?"

"_The_ Rebecca from Scotland?" Suddenly she perked up and I winced. Clearly I was not a private matter. "I have been waiting so long to speak to you, especially now that I'm coming to visit!"

Suddenly it all made sense. "Pam?" I guessed and she chuckled.

"The one and only. It's about time I put a voice to the name. I shall take you to the master straight away." I could hear a faint baseline in the background and guessed she was walking through the bar. Finally the strains of music died away and then I heard Pam speaking. "Master, it is your betrothed on the phone."

Who? For a moment I was confused and then I realised she meant me. Betrothed? What was that about?

"Rebecca." It was just one word and long distance at that but it still made things tighten low in my body when it was growled by a gorgeous vampire. I stamped down my traitorous libido and tried to sound angry.

"What did she mean by betrothed?" I demanded and he sighed, clearly realising that this would be the way of it.

"You wear my ring do you not?" He asked and I took a moment to admire the sparkling sapphire adorning my finger before I ruthlessly squashed my love of all things sparkly.

"Eric, a prerequisite of being betrothed is that one party has to ask the other for their hand in marriage and the other has to agree." I pointed out. "Epic fail on all counts."

"What is it with you and your prerequisites?" He sounded amused and I knew why. The last conversation we'd had about prerequisites was me trying to explain that a basic prerequisite for the existence of a fangbanger was having some fang to bang.

"Why is it that when you lack a logical premise on which to base an argument you attack one of my character traits that would be a virtue when aimed at anyone other than you?" I countered and he chuckled deep in his throat.

"I love it when you get technical." He murmured. "But since this seems important I shall ask – Rebecca, most beautiful of heart, will you marry me?"

I didn't even blink. "No. Now that we've sorted out the issue of our not being betrothed can we please get to why I called?"

"You are such a delightfully obstinate woman!" He still sounded amused. I'm sure he actually loved it when I argued with him. I guess there weren't many people brave enough to cut him down to size.

"And you're an insufferably obstinate vampire." I shot back. "Once again with the character traits..." There was a sudden silence and then I heard a quiet thudding. "Eric?" I said in a small voice, wondering if I'd pushed him too far, and then Pam came on the line.

"What did you say to him?" She asked curiously. "He is trying to knock a hole through the wall with his head."

Oh. I winced. "I'm not sure." I admitted. "It was either the bit where I refused to marry him or the bit where I called him insufferably obstinate." There was a brief moment of silence and then Pam started giggling.

"Oh I like you!" She declared cheerfully. "You're not bad for a mouth breather!"

"Mouth breather?" The words just came out of my mouth like a freight train that couldn't be stopped. "What orifice do you breathe through?" This time Pam absolutely howled with laughter and it was Eric's turn to pick up the phone and ask what I had said. "I'm not saying." I told him stubbornly. "Look, long distance costs a fortune. I was just calling to tell you that you might need to change your flights."

And just like that he turned serious. "What has happened, dear one?" He asked and I sighed.

"We're expecting heavy snow at the end of this week." I explained. "The airport here is going to be closed and I know you can't come early so I was thinking that if you could change your flight destination I could maybe catch the train down to Inverness before the snow falls and meet you there, book a B&B. I bet it's a long time since Pam has been shopping in actual opening hours and it gets dark here around 4pm. I thought we could stay for a couple of days and I could finish my Christmas shopping and by that time they should have cleared the roads enough to reopen the A9. We'll get a hire car and come up. I'd take my own car down but it's only 2 wheel drive so not great for the ice."

I held my breath while I waited for his response. I had been so looking forward to his visit over Christmas that the thought we might have to cancel it because of the weather had made me vent several choice words at the forecast. I was dreading the news that he couldn't change his flight or some other problem but he didn't see it as an issue.

"I'll speak to the airline and I'm sure they will accommodate our needs." He said easily as though chartering a jet and changing the flight plans at the last minute was nothing. "It would take a lot more than the weather to keep me from you lover. Book the B&B and charge it to my account. If I find you have paid for it yourself I will be extremely displeased." I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, oh Master of the Universe." I responded sarcastically. "Let me know when you've changed your flight plans and I'll see what I can do about train tickets."

"I will." His voice softened. "I am looking forward to having you in my arms."

I actually jumped up and down, this sentiment made me feel so giddy. "You too." I tried not to sound too excited but hey, I'm a girl. I'm allowed to squeak occasionally.

"Be well, dear one." And then he hung up. My goodbye died on my lips and I sighed, setting the phone back in its cradle. Vampires...so lacking in social skills...

I should have expected that he would insist on having the last word. As it was I was totally unprepared for the extremely large, extremely shiny 4x4 that was dropped off outside my house the following afternoon.

"What the-?" I opened the door and the delivery driver instantly held up his hand to ward off my questions.

"I have instructions to read this to you before you say anything." He sounded almost apologetic as he unfolded the piece of paper. "Dear one, you will accept this gift. I am concerned for your safety in this inclement weather. The man reading this to you is under oath to faithfully count each and every swear word or curse you utter in his hearing and for each one I shall buy you something equally outrageous and expensive. Therefore, unless you wish to ruin me, I advise you to accept this gift graciously and in the manner it was meant." The delivery driver folded the piece of paper up again and looked at me expectantly.

I smiled sweetly at him and then screeched every swear word I could think of. The driver looked impressed. "Are you sure you didn't miss some?" He chuckled. "Like maybe in Spanish or something?"

I hid a smile. "Do you think it was too many?" I asked and he shook his head.

"Madam, if he can afford to buy you this car without blinking then I don't think your repertoire would ruin him. Even with the French ones."

"Good." We shared a grin and then I graciously accepted the keys.

I was woken at 2am by the house phone and I dragged it off the bedside table. "Hello?" I mumbled sleepily and spent ten minutes listening to Pam laughing uproariously while Eric, clearly stomping around his office, kept repeating "36? 36?" At increasingly loud volumes. Smiling, I eventually hung up and went back to sleep. Suck on that you infernal, controlling man.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: Thanks for the reviews and bookmarks **** I am grateful for them.**

**This is not a one-shot – I wrote the original (when Eric and Rebecca first met) for the HSH contest but can't post it until the New Year so that's why this has come first.**

**This chapter contains some lemony goodness.**

**Eric and Pam are the creations of Charlaine Harris. Everyone else is mine lol. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely intentional *giggle***

I waited in the arrivals lounge at the airport for Eric and Pam to arrive. It was nearly 8pm and their flight had been delayed because of the snow so I knew they'd both be wide awake by the time they landed. I watched the small Anubis plane hit the runway and gasped as it fishtailed wildly on the ice but the pilot managed to straighten it up and they stopped before they ran out of tarmac.

By the time it had taxied to the gate my heart had just about stopped thudding wildly in my chest and I felt like I'd run a marathon. Next winter they wouldn't be visiting in the snow. This was crazy. I subconsciously straightened my coat and took myself for a walk around the baggage belt to try and calm my nerves. This was only the third time Eric had been to visit and I still wasn't really sure what to expect. By the time I had done my third circuit around the tiny lounge he had come through immigration and suddenly there he was, larger than life and so stunningly masculine he took my breath away. Striding towards me his face lit up and before I knew what I was doing I had hurled myself into his arms and he was swinging me round while we both laughed breathlessly, raining kisses all over each others faces and oblivious to the world around us.

Or at least we were until Pam cleared her throat. "I'm thinking of handing out score cards." She said acidly and I froze, suddenly realising that people were staring at the giant blond with the jungle monkey hanging off him.

"I'd give her a ten." A nearby passenger waiting for the Bristol flight remarked and I flushed crimson, hiding my face in Eric's jacket.

"Please put me down." I mumbled, my face burning, but Eric had my legs around his waist and they weren't going anywhere while he was in charge. "Seriously, put me down." Just then the baggage belt started up and he had to release me. I slid down his front realising two things. One, I had totally forgotten how tall he was and two, he was evidently _very _happy to see me.

"Where are the porters?" Pam asked, looking around and I chuckled.

"There aren't any porters." I explained. "This is a tiny airport."

"So who carries the luggage?" She seemed genuinely confused and I started laughing.

"Man up Pam, you're in Scotland now." I caught the handles of the bags as they went past and we hauled them all out to, what even I had to admit, was my totally badass car. Eric was beside himself, not knowing whether to be pleased that I was using his gift or furious that I had made him pay so dearly for being so heavy-handed about it.

I was about to climb into the driver's seat when Pam stopped dead and gaped at my feet. "What are those?" She demanded and I looked down.

"Um...snow boots?" I blinked. "Dude, what planet did you land from that you've never seen snow boots?"

She ignored the question. "I must have some. They are so quaint. Like Eskimo boots."

"I know just the shop." I grinned and got into the car, waiting for everyone to close doors and buckle seatbelts. Eric had grumbled when I'd insisted on it at first but once he realised how stubborn I could be he'd actually given in and Pam followed his lead. I started the engine, thinking all over again that the dashboard looked like it belonged in a space ship. All those buttons...I wished I knew what any of them did.

"So the car is good on the ice?" Eric asked smugly and I nodded, happy to let him be full of himself for a while. We all knew I'd cut him down to size sooner or later, he just didn't want to admit it.

"It was a bit hairy coming down the braes but it'll be worse on the way back." I admitted. "The temperature is dropping to double figures below freezing once night falls so the roads are like ice rinks."

"What are the braes?" Pam asked from the back and I tried to explain that it was a name for a steep hill but I don't think I did it very well because she asked why they didn't just call them hills. It was complicated.

The airport was about ten minutes out of the city and by the time we had navigated our way back to the A9 and then off it again into town the vampires were starting to loosen up a little after their long flight.

"You drive this route like you have done it often." Eric commented as we passed Raigmore Hospital and headed further into the residential areas.

I smiled at him, a little sadly. "I used to come down a lot on courses when I was still working for the Police." I explained. "This is where our area HQ is. In fact the B&B we're staying at is one I've stayed at many times before. That's why they didn't mind my unusual requests. They're quite excited at having their first vampire guests."

"Is it really true that there are no vampires here?" Pam asked as I turned right onto Annfield Road and I shrugged.

"There are some – Eric said he had to ask permission to visit so I guess it's someone's territory, right?" Eric nodded along with me but didn't comment so I continued. "It's because we're so far north. At the height of summer we only get an hour of darkness. You wouldn't be able to function with only an hour of waking every day." I didn't have to turn round to know that Pam was shuddering and I smiled as I turned right at the traffic lights before pulling into the driveway of the B&B. I carefully manoeuvred the car around so it was facing back towards the road and then hustled them inside with the luggage. It was bitterly cold out and they might not feel it but my ears were starting to hurt and I wished I'd worn my hat to the airport.

"Rebecca! You made it back from the airport okay?" Michelle came out of their flat and grinned broadly at me.

"Hi Michelle." I smiled back at her. She was a lovely woman. "Yeah, the roads aren't too bad out that way but I had to go. These Americans...so inconvenient..." I winked to let her know I was kidding but Pam wasn't impressed.

"I'm English!" She declared proudly and then wilted. "Or at least I was. And Eric's no more American than I am."

Eric flashed a dazzling smile at us. "That's true." He purred. "I'm _all_ Viking." Michelle giggled but I squashed the lust that flared through me and slowly looked him up and down.

"And apparently all poser too." I pointed out. "Get over yourself and carry the bags upstairs. We're in Room 2."

Pam sniggered and Michelle handed her a key. "You'll be next door in room three." She gestured towards the staircase. "Follow me."

We let Michelle settle Pam in while I let Eric into our room. He looked around while I started unpacking his clothes into the cupboard and grimaced. "This is...snug." He said sarcastically and I shrugged.

"It's cosy. I like it. And besides, you haven't seen the bathroom yet." I tried to keep the amusement out of my voice but Eric clearly picked up on it. Wordlessly he brushed past me and opened the door to the bathroom, sticking his head in.

"Oh. Oh yes." Suddenly he was all smiles and fang. "Now _this_ is more like it." He curled his large hand around my arm and pulled me to him. "Let's get naked. I have ideas about that shower."

"Already? Wow, and there was me thinking you were just another dumb blond..."

"Do not tease me lover." He growled, his fangs running out slightly. "I have done nothing but think of you since my last visit in September. It has driven me..." he licked his lips and I shivered with anticipation "...quite wild."

Good lord, I was getting all hot and bothered under my cosy cable-knit jumper. Then I glanced at the vanity shelf by the mirror and I just couldn't help it. "Well fine" I grumbled "but I'm wearing the shower cap. I just washed my hair this afternoon. It'll go fluffy."

"The shower cap?" Eric actually gaped at me and I practically killed myself trying not to laugh.

"Well, I know it's not sexy and all but-"

"Get naked NOW woman!" He roared and I just collapsed against him in a fit of giggles, letting him take my bodyweight as I clutched at my sides and laughed until I cried at the thought of getting busy with him while wearing nothing but the shower cap. Finally he sighed. "Must I do everything myself?" He grumbled and propped me up against the glass doors of the huge double walk-in shower so that he could start pulling my top off.

I patiently let him manhandle me about the bathroom until I was down to my underwear and by that time I had calmed down enough to respond to his kisses. Sensing the mood had changed, he pulled his T-shirt off and held me against his naked chest, curling his hands gently into my hair. "I really did miss you." He confessed gently, kissing the top of my head. "You drive me nuts and yet..." he still wasn't used to expressing himself and struggled to find the words. "...I go home and laugh about it, you know? I'd have killed anyone else for insulting me the way you do and yet somehow you make it endearing."

I smiled just as softly as I looked up at him. "You're just a sucker for punishment. But I missed you too." I leaned slightly back and he bent down to kiss me as I began to unbuckle his jeans, sliding my hands inside them to cup the smooth, muscled planes of his butt. It always amused me that Eric went commando. I wondered sometimes if he'd ever caught his dick in the zip. If he had he'd surely never admit to it but I filed the question away in my head for springing on him at a future date. Then I wondered why I was thinking about embarrassing accidents when I had my hands full of naked Viking flesh. Foolish woman.

We finally made it into the shower and Eric sat me on the small alcoved ledge in the wall while he waited for the water to warm up. It was only five inches wide and I had to brace my arms against the sides of the alcove to keep from sliding off. When the water was warm he reached up to replace the shower head in the cradle, giving me a fine view of the line of his body, and if I hadn't been so sure I'd fall off I would have applauded. I was quite certain people would buy tickets to see what I had an eyeful of right then. Heat flared low in my core as he turned and slowly walked towards me, steam and spray rising up about him and giving him a halo that shone in the overhead lights. He was so beautiful I caught my breath all over again.

"I have dreamed often of that look." He murmured, laying his hands on my hips. "It makes me feel like I have a soul for you to gaze into."

Wow. I mean really...wow. For an emotionally challenged vampire he certainly had a way with words. I couldn't think of a response that didn't involve a theological discussion on the philosophy of the animated corpse so I just stayed quiet and let him kiss me, which he did thoroughly and with great aplomb. When I came up for air I was a quivering mass of nerve endings that wanted desperately to flame out in a blaze of glory but he clearly had no intention of rushing, taking his time in selecting a bottle of shower gel and carefully starting to smooth it over me from my shoulders down.

I moaned softly as firm hands massaged my breasts, experienced fingers circling my nipples until they ached with need. "Please Eric." I gasped. "It's been months."

"So a few more minutes shouldn't hurt." He was amused but said it softly and my arms trembled with my conflicting desires to throw myself at him or endure this exquisite agony. I watched him wide-eyed as he rested my left ankle on his shoulder and soaped it up, starting at my feet and working towards my thigh. I closed my eyes in feverish anticipation as he stroked close to my womanhood but he didn't touch it, instead raising my right ankle and balancing it on his other shoulder while skilled hands caressed and danced across my calves. Nearly howling with frustration and want I actually considered just letting go of the walls. Surely he'd catch me before I fell and then I could somehow get him to fill the part of me that needed him inside me more than I needed to breathe.

When he was done with the soap he moved forward until my knees were resting on his shoulders and then he lowered himself to his knees. The abrupt change of angle nearly made me slide right off the ledge but he pinned me in place with strong hands on my hips and before I could gather myself his sinfully practised tongue was sliding across my opening in long, sure strokes.

"Oh!" I gasped, arching my back and forgetting to hold on again but he pinned me firmly in place as I struggled to move against him. "Eric please!" I could feel him chuckling as his tongue flickered over and over my nub and when I was right at the edge and thought I was either going to cry or go crazy, he finally lifted his face and smiled at me, rising to his feet and scooping me to him in one graceful move.

He held me so that my face was on a level with his and looked me in the eye. I could feel the long length of him pressing gently against my opening and I whimpered, trying to push downwards but he held me firmly.

"Rebecca I have every intention of fucking you as hard and as thoroughly as you deserve but I have one condition." He said mildly and I struggled to focus on him through the haze of my lust.

"What? What condition?" I wasn't really listening, I was too far gone, too liquid with desire.

"I have a gift for you and you will accept it graciously when I am done." He sounded stern.

"Yes yes." I squirmed in his arms but he tightened his grip until I looked at him again.

"Was that a promise?" He asked and I growled.

"For fucks sake Eric! Yes that was a promise! Now! Please!"

"Good." His fangs were fully extended as he slowly let me drop onto him, inch by glorious inch, and I was writhing in his arms as my body welcomed him home. It felt so good. He braced me against the wall and did exactly as he intended while the water cascaded down around us drowning out everything except this moment, right here.

Afterwards I was sat on the bed in my towel watching while Eric rummaged around in his bag, as gloriously naked as ever. I thought he was looking for clothes but when he reappeared with a large jewellery box my hasty promise made in the heat of the moment sat heavy on my chest and I looked at him apprehensively.

"Don't look at me like that lover." Smug bastard. "You promised you would be gracious about this."

Trying not to sigh I accepted the box and hesitantly opened it. Inside was the most incredible necklace I had ever seen – a string of large white emerald cut stones. It was just stunning.

"They're white sapphires." He offered quietly, sounding as though he was trying to gauge my reaction. "I thought you would understand-"

"That some things have a greater value than can be measured by money." I finished for him. He knew I adored rare gemstones and white sapphires are some of the rarest stones in the world. I started to smile at him and then a sneaking suspicion crept into my mind. Blinking, I looked back at the box and started counting.

Then I just about died laughing – there were exactly 36 stones in the necklace.


	3. Chapter 3

**Authors note: Thanks again for the reviews **

**For more information on the Nyx please read: .org/wiki/Neck_(water_spirit)**

**I'm heading back north tomorrow so updates will be a little slower in coming. Apologies!**

When we were dressed we bundled back into the car and headed out into the snowy night. I had thought that, since we were here anyway, it would be silly not to go and see Loch Ness. Pam and Eric stared out of the windows at the falling snow while I tried hard to manoeuvre the spaceship across the ice rink that was masquerading as a road.

I took us as far as we could go and then we got out and carried on by foot down to the banks of the loch. It was a still night and the glassy water was just spectacular as the white flakes settled on the inky blackness and slowly vanished.

"This is where the monster lives, yes?" Pam asked as we stared out across the lake and I nodded.

"So they say."

"I wish to see." I was about to say something sarcastic about conjuring a monster on demand when I realised she was taking her clothes off.

"Are you nuts?" I squeaked. "It's minus 16 out here! What are you doing?" She stuffed her top, coat and jeans into my arms and I grabbed them to stop them falling. When she started removing her underwear I turned to Eric. I liked her but after only two hours we were not yet comfortable on the nudity front. "Eric stop her! She'll freeze!"

He smiled at me. "No she won't. Let her go." There was a soft splash behind me and I turned back to watch Pam's pale body cutting through the dark surface of the water.

"Oh my God!" I clutched her clothes, fearful for her safety but Eric was totally unconcerned, tucking me under his arm as we waited for her to return.

For a few moments we stood there in silence and then he tensed slightly. "Why did you say no?" He asked, his voice painfully neutral, and I swallowed.

"You know why Eric." I replied quietly. "I don't belong in your world. My dreams are so very human."

"You have not spoken to me of these dreams." It was not a reprimand, more a curiosity and I shrugged.

"I want children Eric." I confessed. "Not right now, but soon."

His grip tightened almost painfully. "I can be a father Rebecca, we can come to some arrangement with the mechanics of it."

"How Eric?" I knew I sounded sad and I was. "And I'm not talking about the technicalities of it, I'm asking how you can be any figure in a child's life when we're on opposite sides of the world. You'll be asleep when it's at school, you'll miss its first steps if they happen in the day. It wouldn't be fair on either of us for me to, be a single mother and that is essentially how it will be most of the time."

"You would want for nothing." He protested quietly and I almost laughed except tears were filling my eyes.

"It's not enough Eric." I swallowed the sobs that were rising in my throat. "You cannot replace a full time father with money."

"I cannot let you go." His voice was cold and hurt. "I will not."

"One day you will have to." I kissed his cold hand. "Eric, I am mortal. Any child of mine...ours...would be mortal. Our grandchildren would be mortal. A man cannot cope with that much loss." I shuddered. It would be an eternity of loss, generation after generation fading away before his ageless eyes.

"If you die my humanity dies with you." He kissed the top of my head. "You hold the last piece of my heart that remembers what it was like to be human."

"All things die Eric." One of my grandma's favourite bible readings came to me in the night. "For every thing there is a season and a time for every purpose under the sun. A time to be born and a time to die."

"That sounds like a quote." I was shivering and he opened his coat, pulling me inside it with Pam's clothes squashed between us.

"It's from Ecclesiastes." I snuggled into the front of his cashmere jumper. "It's all the wisdom a person needs to accept in their life. I'll dig it out for you when we get home. I read it at my grandmother's funeral."

"Do your family know about me?" He asked suddenly and I grinned.

"Of course. Wouldn't you be interested if some undead dude started pillaging your village, you know what I'm saying?"

He snorted. "I'd like to think I have a little more finesse than a simple pillaging."

"Wow you should really get something for those delusions..." I laughed and he started to say something but then there was a soft splash as something broke the surface of the loch and we both turned. Pam was rising from the water like some ancient goddess carved from alabaster and beside her rose a monstrous head.

I yelped and stumbled as I tried to back away but Pam was smiling with glee and as I gaped the head shrank and, in moments, morphed from something resembling a diplodocus to a strikingly beautiful woman as it...she continued to rise out of the water.

"I found her!" Pam was gleeful. "She's a Nyx!"

"What's a Nyx?" My mind refused to accept what I had just seen.

"They're a cross between a Naiad and a shapeshifter." Eric explained quietly. "She must be very ancient."

"I am." Her voice echoed across the water, resonant and ethereal. "Welcome to my lake Viking and consort. It is a long time since I had company." Her words were oddly stilted as though she had not spoken in a long time.

Eric inclined his head to her and, lacking in any previous experience of anything like this, I curtsied before the ancient being. She smiled at me.

"Rise child. Turn your face to the moon." Slowly I rose and lifted my eyes from the water surging about her legs as she strode towards me through the water. I lifted my face and she held my chin gently in strong fingers as she turned it this way and that, studying me with eyes that shimmered like rippling water silvered by the moon's kiss. Somewhere in the haze of disbelief flooding my mind the thought surfaced that she was really very beautiful. She looked amused.

"There is something extraordinary in you, child." She released my chin and smoothed the hair out of my face. It was snowing again and I could feel the flakes kissing my cheeks. "Will you visit me again?"

"Of course." I frowned. "How will I let you know I am here?"

She laughed. "Dip your fingers in the water and I will know you are here." She leaned forward and laid a gentle kiss on my lips. I was too startled to move and instantly an icy cold flooded my body like I had been dunked into a frozen lake. She smiled as she stepped back. "Accept my blessing and I will see you soon." She nodded to Eric and briefly embraced Pam, murmuring something quietly to her. Pam nodded and then Nyx was gone, sinking into the loch with barely a ripple.

"Well that was weird." Understatement of the century. I held Pam's clothes out to her and she started putting them back on. Eric was eyeing me cautiously.

"How do you feel?" He asked and I shrugged.

"I'm fine, why?"

"I sensed magic about the Nyx. She has blessed you somehow but I don't know what she did." He sounded troubled. "We will have to watch you closely."


	4. Chapter 4

Slightly thrown by our strange encounter with the Nyx we headed back to the B&B. It was almost 2 in the morning and although I had been trying to adjust my sleep pattern in preparation for Eric and Pam's arrival I was starting to flag. We all went to our room where I made a hot chocolate and then we all snuggled on the bed to watch Love, Actually. Pam had taken advantage of my boiling the kettle to show off her new hot water bottle and when I just about killed myself laughing over the pastel coloured coffin-shaped bottle Eric was starting to look like he had landed on another planet.

By the end of the film I was ready to stake both of them. "I do not understand this sentiment." Eric frowned as they showed the arrivals lounge at the airport. "There is nothing happy about watching other people greet loved ones."

I stared at him. "Eric, don't you think people thought it was sweet that I could barely wait for you to get off the plane before I hugged you?"

He stared right back. "No. I think they were jealous of the fact that I got to take you home and finish what we started before Pam so rudely interrupted us. Envy is not a happy emotion."

I shook my head. Later Pam got confused about the lobsters. "But there are no lobsters in the nativity." She frowned and I chuckled.

"Yes Pam, that's why it's funny."

"But why is it funny that there are sea creatures in a birth story? What role do they play? How can they tell the story with sea creatures? Where does the octopus come in? Did they even eat lobsters in Judea at that time?"

I gave her a long, level look. "It's a human thing." I said eventually and she nodded as though our weirdness explained away everything.

"Why does this Prime Minister allow them to dictate to him that he must sing?" Eric was clearly disgusted by the perceived weakness of this fictional Prime Minister. "He should have acted decisively. It is no wonder they have no respect."

"Will you two just shut up and watch the goddamn film!" I exploded. "If you can understand me you can understand this."

"But I don't understand you." Pam was genuinely bewildered. "The master asked you to marry him and you said no. There is no logic, rhyme nor reason to your behaviour. It is most perplexing."

I stared at Eric, just daring him to laugh, and although his lips twitched he wisely remained silent. "There is a great deal of logic behind my answer to Eric." I said slowly. "I want children one day."

Pam actually shuddered. "As I said – no logic. Why would you do that to yourself?"

"I am human. It is what my body is telling me I need to do." How did you explain the biological clock, ticking away silently but relentlessly to someone that hadn't had a biological urge other than lust or hunger for centuries?

"But they are so messy!" She was awfully squeamish for someone that would suck a stranger's neck.

I couldn't help it. "So is Eric. Have you ever seen the bathroom when he's through with it? And before you start with the whole bodily fluids thing, seriously, Eric isn't shy when it comes to spreading his around."

Pam actually sniggered. "I can't even joke about having large items passing through your birth canal can I?"

I studiously avoided looking at Eric. "Not when he regularly inserts something large into my birth canal, no."

"So if the logical conclusion is that having Eric is much like having a child, why have a child at all when you may keep Eric?" Pam rounded off triumphantly and suddenly I was sad.

"I could write you a list." I said softly. "But they are all things that I don't think you would understand."

Pam shrugged. "Humans are so weird."

"Thanks. I love you too." I threw a pillow at her and before I could blink she had snatched it out of the air and socked it right back.

It was nearly two minutes before I could breathe again. Her lob had caught me dead centre in my chest and winded me.

"Remind me not to do that again!" I wheezed and Pam grinned cautiously trying to ignore the fact that Eric looked ready to tear her head off. I took his hand and tried to communicate to him silently that it was an accident and Pam grabbed the opportunity to climb off the bed.

"I'm going to read for a while." She announced. "You two have fun." She sashayed out of the door and Eric pushed it closed behind her, hovering over the bed like I was dying of heart failure or something.

"Get into bed Eric." I snapped tiredly. "I'm feeling grumpy and tired and I need you to hold me until I remember why I was so happy that you were coming." Wordlessly he began removing clothes and I changed into my pyjamas. We crawled under the covers together and he held me while I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke sometime before sunrise to see him sat at the desk with his computer but drifted off again almost immediately and when I woke again the dusk was falling and he was just beginning to stir beside me.

It was a few minutes after 4pm and I stretched luxuriously. I had slept for almost 11 hours and the exhaustion of the night before was most definitely a thing of the past. Reflexively he tightened his arms around me and I was snuggling back into him until something large and throbbing let me know he was more than a little happy to see me.

"Well hello little human." He nuzzled my neck and I grinned.

"Hello excited vampire." I greeted drily. "You'd better put that away before you hurt something."

"With pleasure." He started making moves before I realised what I'd said and I pushed him away.

"I meant put it in your pants!" I laughed. "We haven't got time to play."

He wrestled me back down to the bed, moving over me until I was pinned under his weight and kissed me thoroughly. "There's always time to play." He growled with amusement, sliding a large hand up my side to caress my breast. "What's got you in such a rush that you want to leave our bed?"

Okay, this was _so_ not going to go well. "I promised Pam I'd take her shopping – they have late opening here on a Thursday." I confessed meekly. He opened his mouth to protest but I put my finger to his lips. "Eric, it's what girls do. When you took her away from the world of the living you gave her a wonderful new existence but you also took a lot of things away. Here, with it being dark so early, she can experience shopping in regular hours with regular people doing regular things for the first time in many hundreds of years. You told me that I made you remember what it was to be human, that I had awakened a part of your heart that you thought was dead. Allow me to do the same for Pam."

Reluctantly I took my finger from his lips and he gazed at me for several seconds. Then he sighed. "What are you doing to me woman?" He murmured softly. "Back home I would have said that Pam is my second and her desires therefore come second to mine but here?" He pressed his forehead to mine and closed his eyes. "Here I find that I want to spend the rest of my days being a mirror to your soul. I wish my heart to mirror yours in all its beauty. You make me want to feel generous."

"Is that such a bad thing?" I whispered but I knew the answer before he said it.

"One day it will destroy me." He rolled off me and pushed himself upright to sit at the edge of the bed. "Here it is safe...with you...but I can't allow it to come out back home. And one day you will try and leave me..." He shuddered. "You cannot imagine the things I am capable of Rebecca. Losing you would let the darkness swallow me whole but forcing you to stay would shatter us both."

"Then we must find a compromise." I crawled over and put my arms and legs around him, resting my cheek, still warm from sleep, against his cool back. "The world is never black and white Eric. There are shades of grey. If this, what we have, is worth fighting for then we can both learn to adapt."

"I don't want you to give up your dreams and I fear for your safety if I took you into my world." His voice was neutral. Eric didn't like admitting he was scared.

I sighed. "Eric, it's my experience that life has a way of working itself out. Let's just stop borrowing trouble and enjoy what we have and it will all come right in the end." I poked him. "Now go and get in the shower like a good little Viking. I'll make it up to you when we get back."

"Is that a promise?" Suddenly the old Eric was back and he turned his head to grin at me.

"Of course." No-one said I couldn't make him watch Elf first though...

Pam was utterly delighted by her whole shopping experience. She got the snow boots she wanted and some new clothes. We trawled the Drawing Box for pretty handmade Christmas decorations and smelled what had to be every bath bomb in Lush. We tried on clothes in just about every store and admired the jewellery in the windows we passed. Eric trailed behind us like a lost puppy but secretly I think he was thrilled that Pam and I got on so well and were having so much fun. I had a few last minute Christmas presents to buy and we walked around the Eastgate Centre where I purchased luxury toffee from Thorntons and DVDs from HMV. We stopped at the Body Shop and bought my mum's favourite shower gel before heading on to Debenhams to look at all the gifts on offer there. When I accidentally (on purpose) sprayed Eric with some perfume his expression was just priceless and I had to go get a chai latte from the Starbucks while he calmed down, trying not to laugh at his grumblings.

We finally trekked along to the soap shop and Pam bought a few delicately fragranced handmade soaps to take home with her and by then we were so exhausted that we decided it was time to go home. I needed to eat first though so we stopped at Girvans on the trek back where Eric insisted I eat something high protein to keep my strength up.

As I tucked into the steak something amusing struck me. "What are you smiling for?" Eric asked and I shrugged.

"Nothing really. It just occurred to me that as far as you're concerned I'm a walking, talking protein shake." Pam snorted but Eric didn't find it funny.

"You mean more to me than food!" He declared and I grinned.

"I'm so glad to hear it." I replied drily. "Although I give a good stern lecture on playing with your food. It's really a shame that you'll never get to hear it."

"You can run it by me." There was a heating dark in his eyes at the thought and something tightened low in my body. Eric the big badass vampire got turned on at the thought of an authoritative woman giving him a dressing down...who'd have thought?

When we got back to the B&B I made them watch Elf which confused them even more than Love, Actually and then Pam left to pursue her own devices leaving me to fulfil my promise to Eric.

"So..." He grinned, running his fangs out a little because he was amused. "Where do you want me lover? Bathroom or bedroom?"

I closed my eyes and counted to ten to stop myself commenting that I'd heard Siberia was nice this time of year and he took the opportunity to pull me to where he was sat on the bed. "Bed I think." He murmured. "Your feet must hurt from all that walking around." This was true and I smiled.

"I can deal with the bed." I tugged his T-shirt off and then pushed him back so he was lying flat and undid his jeans. He obediently lifted his hips so I could slide them off and underneath he was naked. He was glorious when he was naked. Mile after mile of perfect alabaster skin, toned lines and clean curves in all the right places. He reached for me but I slapped his hands away. "Down boy!" I chided. "Don't be so greedy." Slightly bemused he waited while I stripped down to my underwear and then I climbed on top of him.

He reached for me again but again I pushed his hands away. "What part of 'I'll make it up to you' did you not comprehend?" I asked huskily. "Because I kind of thought the 'I' and 'you' were something of a giveaway..."

He blinked and lowered his hands, clearly deciding to run with this, so I took my time, kissing him gently on the lips and then down his neck and across his collarbone before heading further south. When he realised where I was headed he curled his hands softly in my hair and sighed with pleasure. This was something I had never done for him before. Given my history he had never asked anything of me that I was not prepared to give and this was one of my major stumbling blocks, but if a man asks you to marry him and means it I guess there were some things you could trust him to guide you through.

I took the base of him firmly in my hands and then slowly, teasingly closed my mouth around him, swirling my tongue around his tip. He gasped, arching his back as his hands involuntarily tightened in my hair and I smiled inwardly at his response. If I'd known he was this into it we might have done it a bit sooner. Carefully I took as much of him into my mouth as I could and set up a steady rhythm, alternating between using my tongue and the softest of grazes with my teeth. At first he held my hair out of the way so he could watch himself fucking my mouth but it was obviously too much and he groaned, throwing one arm over his eyes while the other almost frenetically stroked my scalp.

Finally he tensed and he immediately pulled my head up. "Don't!" He grated out hoarsely. "I don't want to do that to you. Please." I nodded and straightened up.

"Where do you want to come?" I asked and he slipped a hand inside my panties.

"I want to come inside you." He slipped a finger into me while his thumb circled slowly around my nub and this time it was me who gasped. "You're ready for me." The expression on his face was one of reverence and I chuckled.

"I'm always ready for you Eric. Check this out." In a fit of pique at the number of pairs of underwear he had destroyed I had purchased briefs that laced at the sides. Two quick tugs on the ribbons and I tossed them over my shoulder. He laughed and shook his head.

"Ever the enterprising woman. What a great idea. I'll get you some more of those." I leaned forward to kiss him but the change in angle meant he hit my sweet spot and I almost collapsed onto him at the sudden burst of pleasure.

"I want you inside me now." I gasped and he kissed me, taking away his hand so I could scoot forward slightly. I pushed myself upright with a hand on his chest and then slowly I lowered myself onto him.

After that I lost all control. He used strong hands on my hips to guide me up and down and then he rolled me over so I was caged beneath him, clinging on as he drove into me again and again. I came just seconds before he did and he cried out, thrusting again, once...twice before he slowly lowered himself to kiss me, rolling to one side so he didn't crush me.

"Does that make up for not getting it earlier?" I asked blissfully and he chuckled.

"Yes lover, that made up for it."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Apologies for the delay in posting. Here is an extra long chapter to apologise!**

**Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I wish you the brightest of blessings for the new year.**

The following night we packed up the car and ate a hurried dinner before heading north towards Wick. It was bitterly cold and the temperature on the spaceship's dashboard was showing at minus 14*C which dropped even further as we headed north.

It was a clear night with the moon shining brightly enough for me to point out various points of interest. We stopped at the Dornoch Firth to admire the utterly spectacular view across the mouth to the ocean. Slightly later we stopped at the Glenmorangie distillery. It was closed of course at that time of the night, especially in the winter, but the smell of hops was strong in the crystalline air and the buildings were still beautiful to look at. I described for the in detail how the actual distillery with it's giant copper pots looked just like something out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was a truly awe-inspiring sight.

Next on our mystery tour was the castle at Dunrobin. That too was closed for the night but we managed to park in the driveway and walk down to the sea front, looking back at the white castle gleaming above us in the moonlight. It always made my heart catch a little whenever I saw it – it truly was a beautiful building.

"You should see the gardens in the summer." I enthused as we trekked back up the long drive towards the car. "It's extraordinary – they have these great big pyramid shaped trellises that they grow climbing flowers up and in between them they grow roses. Every other spare bit of earth is carpeted in tulips in a riot of every colour imaginable. I'll take pictures for you this summer – it's really a wonder to behold."

Eric seemed saddened that he would have to see it second hand so I tried to distract him with descriptions of the crazy little museum they had on sight which was full of creepy stuffed animals and exhibits that even the curators didn't know the purpose or identity of.

Back on the road I pointed out Munro's folly – a totally pointless series of arches built on top of a hill for no purpose other than to look pretty. That elicited several smartass comments from Pam who seemed to find the idea hugely amusing.

From there north we mostly just watched the scenery although this time we actually stopped at Whaligoe Steps and climbed all the way down into the harbour and back up again. Despite the freezing air and the icy steps needing to be navigated with great care I was exhausted and perspiring when we got back to the top. I just couldn't comprehend how the women had done it all those decades ago, hauling baskets of herring up and down from the port. Clearly they were hardier back then. I silently resolved to make more of an effort to go to the gym.

After that it wasn't long until we were in the town and I navigated the few streets to my house with great care. Here they hadn't cleared the snow from the roads and they were treacherous. I docked the spaceship by the kerb outside my front gate and we all got out of the car. Pam was looking at the house with undisguised curiosity but my attention was caught by the air around me, sparkling as though it were full of glitter.

"What is it?" Eric's face was wondrous and I grinned.

"It's fog but it's so cold the mist particles have frozen into miniscule ice particles." I explained. It was only the second time I had seen it but it was truly magical – the air glittered all around us like we were wading through fairy dust.

"How extraordinary." Pam was now looking at the sparkles caught in the glow of the streetlights and I left them to gape as I unloaded the bags from the car. Eric helped me carry them inside and I welcomed Pam into the house like an old friend.

Eric went to look at all the home improvements I had made since he had visited last and I settled Pam into the guest room. He was still poking at the new windows while I carefully laid and lit the fire. Although I had finally had central heating installed I couldn't bear to part with my fireplace – it was just so pretty to look at and with the back boiler it saved on electricity. Beautiful and practical. Much like Eric in many ways. He could be flamboyantly fiery too. The thought amused me and I hid a smile as he poked at my Christmas tree.

"What are these?" He flicked the blades of one of my wooden decorations and the tiny sled spun round and round in it's cradle.

"They're traditional German decorations." I blew softly at a couple of the others and they too spun round and round in a frenzy of miniature Christmas scenes. "My family lived there for a while when I was growing up. Christmas there is really magical – they have massive street markets and festivals and so many of them have kept to the old ways with the traditional crafting. It's my favourite place to go this time of year." I smiled wistfully. I tried to go every Christmas but flights and hotels were getting expensive and even with the comfort afforded me by Eric's generous financial backing I simply couldn't justify the trip this year. It was too much.

"You should have said." He tucked me under his arm. "We will go next year."

"That would be nice." I grinned at him. "If Pam wants to come back we should fly from somewhere further south and stop at York on the way back. That's another of my favourite places and the shops are just amazing. She'd love it."

"You'd have to chain me with silver to keep me away if there's shopping involved!" Pam drawled, coming into the room. She'd changed from her slightly soggy trousers into a comfortable looking pair of tan cords and a pastel green sweater. She looked like a stepford wife on a rest day. I wasn't brave enough to make this observation aloud and instead offered them a bottle of blood each, putting them into the microwave for a short while and carefully shaking them to remove any heat spots.

Since it was only 4am we sat up and played board games. We tried scrabble first but I roundly trumped them both and after a second game was derailed by my having to get the dictionary out every second word to prove that it really was a word and an argument over the validity of American spellings we gave that up in favour of draughts. We came about even on that one so I tried to teach Eric Mancala. It was a game he had seen in a previous incarnation during his actual lifetime but he had forgotten how to play and the idea of it fascinated him.

Finally, at 7am when the rest of the world was just beginning to stir, we all went through the shower and headed wearily to bed. It had been a long but laughter filled and fun-fuelled night. I was so glad to have my Viking home.

I was up first that afternoon as the sun was dipping close to the horizon. It was blizzarding outside and the sky was rapidly darkening. I switched the weather forecast on and listened to it absentmindedly as I heated up some bottled blood for Eric. I knew he would be awake soon and would appreciate having it there ready for him.

I was about to take it upstairs when there was a knock at the front door. Curiously I opened it to find myself face to face with a large, blonde, buff and blue-eyed vampire. There was a recurring theme here somewhere, I was sure of it...cue sarcastic snigger. He seemed just as startled as me and actually gaped for a few seconds before recovering himself.

"My apologies." There was a soft lilting brogue to his voice but it wasn't all Scottish, there was something European in there. "You look like someone I knew." After that he seemed totally at a loss for words as he stared at my face and hair and I could feel the heat of embarrassment rising in my cheeks.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked politely...lord my mother would have been proud. He grinned.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Where are my manners? I believe you have American vampires staying with you?"

I was about to ask what business it was of his when his eyes flicked to something behind me and I knew Eric was coming down the stairs in that silent and feline way of his. If the vampire could have gone any paler he would have. Instead his eyes went as wide as saucers and this time his jaw actually dropped.

"Eric?" He stammered incredulously and Eric practically fell over down the bottom step, crashing into me before he could right himself and sending us both tumbling out of the front door, narrowly avoiding the visitor and crashing straight onto the 4 feet of snow piled on the lawn.

"Well hell, that was elegant." I grumbled, pushing myself to my feet and brushing the snow off my clothes, but neither of them was paying me any attention. They were staring at each other.

"Thorfinn?" Eric's voice was tremulous and the sound of it was alien to me. I didn't like that quaver...it spoke of too many uncertainties, but suddenly they were embracing each other fiercely making strange whooping noises and both trying to talk at once.

Warily I stepped back inside the doorway of the house, kicked off my soggy slippers and watching them babble. Finally I had enough and cleared my throat.

"Sorry to be so rude," I was nothing of the sort and my tone clearly said it. "but would you mind telling me who you are?"

To his credit he tried very hard to look crestfallen but the twinkle in his eye and the barely suppressed smile gave him away as he swept an imaginary hat off his head and bowed low. "Why lassie, I'm the King of Scotland." He declared and I snorted.

"And I'm the queen of Sheba. Nice try. Want to go again?" He blinked at me and then looked to Eric in puzzlement.

"Where is this Sheba?" He whispered and Eric coughed to hide a laugh.

"It's an expression." He explained. "It means she doesn't believe you are the King of Scotland."

The stranger grinned at me again. "Wise lady." He didn't seem offended. "I assure you that I am the King of Scotland. I don't normally make house calls but you know what they say about desperate times."

I didn't want to believe him but the sincerity in his tone was giving my scepticism a battering.

"Please invite him in." Eric said to me patiently and I shook my head slowly.

"Not until I know his intentions." I turned back to the stranger. "I am sorry but I can't let you into my home until I know if you mean us good or harm."

"Of course." Again he didn't seem perturbed but for some reason Eric was looking mildly hurt. "I mean you no harm, I swear it. I came mostly out of curiosity to see the vampire that has been in my lands three times this last year but now that I know who he is I find my heart greatly lifted. I come now seeking an alliance." I gave him a long level look, testing the truth of his words and then I nodded, stepping back to clear the doorway.

"Then be welcome in my home, King of Scotland." He stepped over the threshold and brushed the snow off his shoulders while Eric crowded in behind him. As they stood together my mind finally accepted what my eyes had refused to see.

Eric chuckled at my expression. "Realisation dawns." He murmured. "Rebecca, heart of my heart, this is my brother Thorfinn." And when he said brother he meant of the flesh and blood variety. These two had been born to the same parents almost a millennium ago and seemingly neither of them knew the other was a vampire. Now that they were standing together in the hall light it was impossible to miss the family resemblance – same hair, same piercing blue eyes...it was uncanny.

Pulling myself together I left them to settle in the living room while I went to warm up more blood. Eric's was currently decorating the snow outside and I made a mental note to go and turn it over before morning if the blizzard hadn't covered it. I did not need my former workmates showing up on my doorstep because my front lawn looked like something from a chainsaw massacre. That would most definitely not be cool.

They both went quiet when I walked in to hand them their bottles but as I went to leave the room Eric asked if I was going to stay.

"No." I smiled at him. "You guys haven't seen each other for almost a millennium. I think you've got some catching up to do without women in the way." I checked my watch. "Some of the guys from work are meeting up for dinner tonight. I'll get Pam and we'll go out. I didn't have anything planned for dinner anyway." I smiled again at Thorfinn. "I know my home is a little humble but you are more than welcome to stay if you would like. It would only take a couple of minutes to make up the other guest room."

He nodded graciously. "That would be most kind. I would like very much to stay in your beautiful home." He was so like Eric I found myself blushing and I rushed out in a fluster leaving them laughing behind me.

Pam was already up and about so it didn't take long for us to make up the room for Thorfinn and get a little dolled up.

"What is this hair style called?" Pam asked, examining the tousled roll of hair I had sat like a crown on my head. Instantly I was defensive before this polished and beautiful creature.

"I have a lot of hair." I pointed out. "It keeps it out of the way."

"I was trying to pay you a compliment." She sounded frustrated. "It suits you. When you marry the master you should wear it like this. We can put pearls and diamonds and flowers in it. You will look quite spectacular."

I sighed. "Pam, I am not marrying Eric. I thought we had been over this."

She grinned, gaily showing fang. "The master always gets what he wants. _Always_."

Afterwards I would swear it was this conversation that was my downfall. I went out in a huff, determined to have a good time that didn't involve the overbearing vampire trying to move in on my life, and my old work colleagues were so delighted to see me they just kept the drinks coming. I was in fine form when Jim arrived with his new girlfriend, an anorexic looking blonde in low rise jeans wearing too much make-up. She ignored Pam completely and gazed at me with undisguised loathing. After a few moments I'd had enough and set my glass on the table.

"Have you got a problem with me?" I demanded and all around the table conversations hushed. Jim held his hands up, absolving himself of any involvement and the girl pouted.

"I don't like fangbangers." She spat and I chuckled.

"Well, for your information, I'm not overly fond of stercoraceous stick insects either but that aside I'm sure we'll get along swimmingly. Now shut the fuck up and have a drink."

She blinked, her vocabulary clearly not on a par with mine, even with me drunk and she turned to Jim.

"Trust me babe," he said in his gravelly western isles accent "with Rebecca, if you have to look it up in a dictionary you really don't want to know what it means."

Pam was surreptitiously googling it and she grinned broadly. "Oooh! Good word!" She approved and I winked at her. Jim's girlfriend threw her drink at him and flounced out. The whole table roared with laughter as he mopped his face and front with a napkin and he sighed.

"So what did it mean?" Elle asked curiously and Pam showed her the screen. Elle roared even louder with laughter and then everyone else wanted to know.

"It means made of or resembling dung or faeces." I admitted. "It was in my big words calendar a couple of months ago."

Jim shrugged, suddenly amused. "That," he declared "is about as appropriate as it gets."

I staggered home with Pam strolling along beside me shortly after midnight, grateful I was wearing flat shoes. I'd have broken my neck if I'd been in heels. I was trying to figure out how my fingers worked so I could make connection between key and lock when the door swung open and Eric gaped down at me.

"Rebecca! You look frozen!" He chided anxiously and I beamed at him.

"Who? Me? Noooooo I'm as toasty as a toasty thing in a toaster." I sniggered and then fell over I was laughing so hard. I flopped on my back in the snow and waved my arms and legs around to make a snow angel, giggling uproariously like a small child.

"Are you drunk?" He gaped at me and I went still.

"No." I declared imperiously. "It's like this in my head all the time. I'm just usually better at hiding it." I blinked myopically at him and then brightened. "Hey Pam! Tell him I used a good word tonight. He likes it when I use long words. But maybe don't tell him what it means." I frowned, pondering this in the drunken haze of my thoughts. "Definitely don't tell him what it means."

I struggled to get myself upright and Eric finally came out to help me up. He swung me easily into his arms and stepped into the house, kicking the door closed behind him. "You're kind of gorgeous." I gushed, gazing adoringly up at him. Pam was creased with laughter, hiding behind the living room door so she didn't get in the way and somewhere behind her I could hear Thorfinn laughing.

"Oh my God!" I screeched. "I'm drunk and the King of Scotland is in my house! Hide me somewhere! Quick! Try the understairs cupboard!"

At that even Eric lost it, propping himself up against the wall and laughing so hard he was crying pink tears of mirth. I was jostling about in his arms as he laughed and it was making me queasy.

"Eric you're making me seasick and we're not even in the sea." I complained. He hastily put me down, still chuckling, and I swayed up the hallway towards the bathroom but before I got there something else diverted my attention. "Hey, I heard that in Scandinavia they make naked snow angels! Well, not naked angels obviously, the people making them are naked." I shook my head at the vagaries of the English language. "Why don't they get frostbite on their testicles? Do you think they put socks on them?"

"Socks?" By this time Eric was on the floor, totally hysterical but I nodded sagely.

"They're sort of the right shape." I mimed pulling a sock onto imaginary privates. "Might not stay up though. Maybe they have to tie a bow around the top."

I woke up just after 6am with absolutely no recollection of how I got to bed. I made my way sleepily to the bathroom and then went in search of a cup of tea, grateful that my head seemed to be fine. There was a mild headache starting behind my right eye but I knew it would pass quickly once I'd eaten something and had a couple of glasses of water washed down with an aspirin. The three vampires were in the kitchen when I appeared and they all turned to look at me as I walked in.

"How are you feeling my love?" Eric asked, amusement twitching the corners of his mouth and I shrugged.

"I'm fine." I switched the kettle on and started getting things together for a 'midnight' snack, dropping bread into the toaster and looking for the marmalade. They eyed me cautiously as I moved around the kitchen quite cheerfully. It wasn't until the toaster popped up that the nights events came back to me and I winced.

"Oh no!" I turned to Pam. "Did I really call Jim's girlfriend a stercoraceous stick insect?"

She nodded, clearly trying not to laugh and I closed my eyes, covering my face in despair. "Oh no." I groaned, wondering how I was going to make it up to him. "Oh no. I am never drinking again."

"On the contrary I think we should get you drunk more often." Eric was enjoying himself. "You were so very entertaining. Your monologue on fastenings for testicle socks was sheer genius."

"Fastenings for what?" I stared at him in astonishment. "What are testicle socks?"

"Do you remember asking to be hidden in the understairs cupboard?" Thorfinn asked when Eric was too busy laughing to answer and I flinched. Now that I did remember.

"I am so sorry." I apologised, utterly mortified. "I very rarely drink, maybe only once or twice a year. I'm so embarrassed. Please forgive me and I hope you don't think any worse of me after my behaviour."

"Not at all." He grinned widely at me. "It was the most fun I've had in ages. Eric is quite right – your monologue was absolute genius. I wish you would come to court – you are quite the orator."

I didn't know whether to blush at the compliment or die of shame. Something else occurred to me. "I didn't give the sink speech did I?" I asked cautiously and they all looked blankly at me.

"What's the sink speech?" Pam asked and I sighed.

"Last time I got drunk I was a little emotional and I gave an impassioned speech on how the sink was my best friend because no-one else let me spit in their face twice a day without complaining." I admitted.

"There's a certain kind of beautiful logic to that." Thorfinn was still beaming at me and I started to feel a bit better. He was so sincerely nice about the whole incident that I managed to forget some of my shame and went back to buttering my toast which was now cold.

By the time I'd slathered marmalade all over it and fished the tea bag out of my mug they'd pulled the table out so I could sit between Pam and Eric and I began to crunch through my toast, expecting them to continue whatever conversation they were having before I arrived. Instead Eric looked down at me fondly but with an entirely serious expression on his handsome features.

"There is something we must discuss." He began and my heart sank. Conversations that began like this never ended well.

"What is it?" I asked quietly and he smiled.

"Before I tell you I wish to ask a question." He took my hand and looked me right in the eye. "Rebecca, would you reconsider my proposal if I moved here?"

"Moved here to Scotland?" I was confused but he nodded, smiling broadly.

"Yes my love – moved here to Scotland."

I stared at him not quite sure what was going on. "But what happens in the summer?" I asked. "You know we don't get enough darkness."

He sighed. "Please just answer the question Rebecca – if I moved here would you reconsider your decision not to marry me?"

I thought about it. Really thought long and hard about it. And then I sighed. "It depends on too many factors my love." I tried to think how best to explain it. "You are, by nature, Machiavellian and wherever you live in this world you will find politics to immerse yourself in. I cannot live in your world, you know that. If there was some way to keep me entirely separate from it then maybe I would consider it but that's only a maybe. Factor in the children issue and suddenly it becomes necessary to understand what you would do in the summer. Do you just go away for 4 months of the year leaving me a single parent and missing first steps, first words?" I took his giant hand in my much smaller ones and looked up into those gorgeous blue eyes. "I would love for you to be here. You know that. But I can't decide how much I am prepared to compromise without knowing where the boundaries are."

He nodded thoughtfully and raised my hands to his lips, kissing the backs of them gently. "You are right." He admitted. "There is much we need to discuss but not right now." He turned slightly to look out the window. "Dawn is only an hour away – we must start getting ready for bed."


	6. Chapter 6

**Please review! I do love to know who's reading. Don't be shy – I'm really very nice lol.**

**I think there's more of a return of Rebecca's attitude in this chapter and I know that amused some of you in the earlier chapters so enjoy.**

**I know the whole water thing may throw a couple of you but I know where I'm going with it in my head lol. If any of you want to guess I can always tell you if you're hot or cold!**

That day, as I slept, I had strange dreams. I was standing on the surface of a lake staring into the distance where the ripples slowly spreading out from my feet were lapping at the shore. The air was crystalline with cold and overhead the night sky glittered with a million pinpricks of light. The moon shone behind me in silvered glory casting my shadow on the surface of the lake. The air was still but heavy with the sense of danger and as my breath fogged into the night I gathered myself for whatever was coming.

They came from the sky, blurring out of shadows until they were surrounding me – a ring of impassive pale faces hovering threateningly each way I turned.

"It is time." The tallest of them stepped forward and gazed at me. "Come with me or die."

"I will not." My voice echoed across the lake and they waited for the last hollow ringing to die out before they drew themselves up and hurled themselves at me.

I flung my arms up and all around me the surface of the lake exploded, water streaming up into the sky in a shining impenetrable wall...

"Rebecca!" Someone was shaking me gently but insistently awake. "Rebecca you have to wake up!" I blinked blearily up at Eric.

"Whassup?" I mumbled sleepily and he shook me again for good measure. "I'm awake." I grumbled. "What's wrong?"

"You had better see this." He stepped back and helped me out of bed, steadying me until I was awake enough to walk on my own and then leading me to the window.

I looked out and couldn't see anything. "What am I looking at?" I grumbled. "I can't see anything."

"Precisely." Eric looked worried. "Come to the front." He pulled me through to the front guest room where Pam had been sleeping and pulled the curtains wide. I still couldn't see anything and said as much. "Where are the street lights?" He asked. "Really look at it." Just then Pam materialised at the top of the stairs with a torch.

"I found one." She handed it to Eric and he shone it through the window. It took a couple of moments for me to realise what I was looking at but as soon as my brain had accepted my eyes weren't lying I stared, mouth agape at what I was seeing.

"It's ice." There was a wall of it about 3 feet away from the window. I looked down and then tried to see how far up it went but it was too dark to see. I turned to Eric. "Have we been snowed in?"

He shook his head looking bleak. "We had the same amount of snow as yesterday – this just shot up about 10 minutes ago, right around the time you started mumbling in your sleep."

They thought I had done this somehow. In a daze, half-reliving the sensation of that weird dream, I turned and went downstairs, barely nodding a hello to Thorfinn who had opened the front door and was staring at the wall of ice that was a standing about a foot from the porch. I went into the kitchen and ran the sink full of water and, once it was full, I held my hand over it and willed the water to rise like I had at the lake to protect myself.

I was just as startled as anyone else when a stream of it shot towards my hand. I flinched back and it hit the ceiling of the kitchen, splattering us all as it fell back down.

"Oh my fucking god." I gaped at my hand.

"I don't think God had anything to do with it." Pam sounded awe-struck. "It must be the blessing of the Nyx. She's given you power over water."

A horrible thought struck me and I marched to the fridge, yanking it open and hauling out a wilted lettuce that had been lurking unloved and uneaten for a week or so. Setting it on the table I concentrated and it disintegrated into wispy little shreds of dessicated leaf. I stared at the pitifully small globule of water nestled in my palm.

"That is just..." my mind struggled to express the thought and I settled lamely for "...a total clusterfuck of weirdness." Shuddering I dried my hand on a piece of kitchen towel, refusing to let my mind wander down the path of what else was possible and headed past Eric towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" He asked and I sighed.

"Back to bed. I'm tired."

He stared at me. "What are you going to do about the ice?"

I blinked. "What do you want me to do Eric? Open the window and point a bloody hairdryer at it? Somehow I don't think that's going to help much."

"Well we have to do something." He said flatly and I shrugged.

"A prerequisite of doing something is knowing what the fuck to do in the first place. I'm not actively maintaining this ice wall so I'm acting on the premise that what goes up must eventually come down. With that in mind I'm going to bed. Wake me up if you have a better idea."

I made it as far as tucking myself in before my mobile started ringing. Wearily I picked it up and it was Jane at the Police Station.

"Please don't think I'm nuts..." she began and I knew what was coming next "...but we've had reports that your house has been swallowed by a freak ice storm. I've dispatched a unit but...well, you know..."

"Freak is the operative word." I responded drily. "The reports are true – my house is totally encased in ice. Is anyone else's frozen or just mine?"

"Just yours." Jane sounded fascinated. "You neighbour called it in but then the old woman across the street called as well. Is everyone in the house okay?"

I couldn't help it. "No, the other 3 are all dead." I sniggered. She didn't get the joke so when I was done laughing I reminded her that the others were vampires. She didn't think it was funny.

I was about to apologise when I heard the radio crackling in the background and we both stopped talking to listen. There was some fuzzy static as they called in the arrival time and then I heard one of my old Police friends Elle gasping.

"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed. "Get the others out here – they have got to see this!" I could hear her partner Greg whistling softly.

"What's it like from the outside?" I asked and Jane relayed the question.

"It's just a solid wall of ice about 30 foot high." Elle passed back. "Completely smooth and totally white." I could hear crunching as she trekked around the back through the snow. "It goes all the way round the house. Never seen anything like it."

30 feet? That was a lot of ice. Even if I knew how to get it to come down that was an awful lot of water – all the houses surrounding me would be flooded instantly.

"There seems to be a gap between the porch and the ice." I explained to Jane. "Would the HIFRS have something capable of cutting through it? If they could cut us a doorway in and out we could just wait for the rest to melt."

"I'll call them and find out." She promised. "Hang tight and I'll call you when we know what's going on."

We said our goodbyes and I reluctantly got up. If she was calling the Fire Service then I really should make an effort to be dressed and presentable by the time they cut through. It wouldn't do to meet the country's finest in my pj's and housecoat.

"What's happening?" Eric asked as I slouched down to the kitchen and put the kettle on.

"The Fire and Rescue team are going to cut us out." I explained, popping a couple of slices of bread in the toaster and rummaging through the cupboards for marmalade. "They're saying it's about 30 feet high so we can't melt it – all the surrounding houses would be flooded." I had a moment of smug satisfaction. "That'll larn ye to get your panties in a twist." I grinned at him. "If I'd tried to 'do something' as you so _helpfully_ suggested it would have caused more harm than good."

"You know, sarcasm really isn't very attractive." He grumbled mulishly and I shrugged.

"Neither is being a control freak but you do it anyway." I replied blithely. Pam sat wide-eyed at the breakfast table like she was watching a bull fight.

"I am not a control freak!" He protested. "I just have to take matters into my own hands when you won't accept what's best for you."

"What's best for me?" That really did top it all. "Eric it's nothing to do with what's best for me – it's to do with what you want, not what I need. Sometimes your arrogance is quite astonishing."

"It's not arrogance when it's based on ten centuries more life experience than you have. You should trust that I know what's best for you."

The toaster popped up. "How can it be 'life' experience when you're dead?"

"We're not actually dead..." Thorfinn tried to help but I interrupted him.

"Virus blah blah allergies blah blah sunlight and garlic blah blah blah. Bullshit. I might love your brother dearly and god knows he rocks my world but he's still a corpse, even if he's a beautiful one." Something struck me. "Ewwwww! Does that make me a necrophiliac?" I shuddered. "Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is this – you think differently. You 'live' differently. You function differently. How can you know what's best for a living, breathing soul when you haven't been one for centuries?"

"I rock your world?" Eric grinned and I had to resist the urge to throw my toast at him.

"Maybe that was an exaggeration. I will concede that you occasionally rock my bedsprings."

"No no, you definitely said I rock your world." Smug bastard.

"Since when is it against convention to use hyperbole when making a point in a spirited discussion?" I asked sweetly and his eyes glittered.

"Don't start woman." He warned, grinning. "You know when you pull out the big words it will end up in us being naked."

"You are such a Neanderthal!" I was trying not to smile and he knew it. "When are you going to learn to put aside your primitive caveman instincts and have a conversation that doesn't degenerate into innuendo at the first possible opportunity?"

"Caveman huh?" He shot to his feet and before I could blink he had lifted me out of my seat and slung me over his shoulder while I was still holding my piece of toast. "This may take a while." He announced to Thorfinn and Pam and turned to head for the stairs.

"Eric Northman! You put me down this instant or, so help me god, I will stick this piece of toast to your naked ass with marmalade!" I squeaked. He clearly didn't think I had it in me to do as I had said and took a couple of steps towards the stairs so I carried out my threat, hauling the waist of his jeans back and shoving my breakfast as far down his trousers as I could reach.

He stopped dead. "Tell me you didn't." He sounded utterly disbelieving.

"My mama never raised me to be a liar." I replied innocently and he sighed, nearly letting me slide off as his shoulders slumped.

"I have marmalade on my ass." His tone was resigned rather than angry and Pam just lost it, howling with laughter.

"And toast in your pants." I concluded cheerfully. "I did warn you." Thorfinn was choking as he tried to hide his laughter and Eric slumped even further.

"Why do I not feel any desire to kill you?" It sounded like a rhetorical question and I wisely chose not to answer, waiting patiently instead for him to concede defeat and put me down. When this hadn't happened after a few seconds I cleared my throat.

"Eric?" I asked quietly and he straightened again.

"I'm trying to decide if I should haul you upstairs anyway or go take a shower and then haul you upstairs." He explained helpfully and I sighed.

"Well given your preference for feeding from the thigh I suggest you start either action by putting me down. All my blood is rushing to my head and I'm feeling a bit woozy."

He still didn't move and then I just knew he was grinning. "Ask me nicely." He purred, caressing my rump and I sighed. Payback was a bitch and we both knew it. Refusing to admit defeat I looked around for something to use and then I remembered that the kitchen sink was still full. Grinning I summoned the water from the sink and it floated gently towards me in a large shining globule. Gleefully and without any warning I pulled the back of Eric's jeans open again and dumped the whole lot right down them.

"What the hell was that?" He had his back to the sink and hadn't seen it coming so he was startled enough to jump forward.

"Now you have soggy toast stuck to your bum with marmalade." I giggled feeling faintly childish but relishing my revenge and Eric decided enough was enough.

"That does it!" He roared. "I am getting in the shower, woman, and by the time I am done you _will_ be upstairs waiting for me or I will punish you!"

"Dude, what happened to equal rights?" I just couldn't help it. He was so funny when he was angry with me. "Did you miss that century or what? Suffragettes ringing any bells?"

He roared again in wordless fury and stormed up the stairs, bouncing me around like a rag doll as he stomped. He crashed through the bedroom door and flung me onto the bed. "Stay there!" He yelled and stormed out again, slamming the door behind him so hard the air rushed around it. I looked after him admiringly. The man was a veritable force of nature.

I actually caught myself wondering what the best thing to do to wind him up was while he was in the shower and realised I must have some sort of death wish. Surely there was only so far he could be pushed, surely? The wickedness in my soul wanted to find out and the small part of my sanity that worried about self-preservation was shrieking at me not to be so stupid.

When he returned five minutes later I was calmly reading a book, wrapped up in my knitted throw. His brows creased as he frowned at me but it appeared some of his rage had cooled off under the shower. "Woman, why are you not naked?" He demanded and I looked at him over the top of my book.

"Man, your command was to 'stay here'. Nowhere in that was it stated or implied that the conditions of my staying involved nudity. Why are we dealing with such impersonal nouns? Woman is only one step up from wench and I don't think either is an appropriate moniker for your professed beloved."

He actually facepalmed. "I hate that it turns me on when you get all uppity like this." He sighed.

"It's the Moneypenny effect." I deadpanned. "An intelligent woman with an undifferentiated English accent makes you feel instantly like James Bond." He opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it. "If you crack one single joke about having a license to thrill I will rescind your invitation to my home."

He gasped. "That's just...tortuous! You can't give me an opening like that and then forbid me from using it!"

"There you go again, leaping into the argument without a basic understanding of the premise." I closed my book and set it in my lap. "Eric, I never forbade you to use the opening, I simply specified that jokes or puns that utilised the phrase 'license to thrill' were out of bounds. I'm sure that if you engaged even half of your undead cerebral cortex you'd come up with a suitable pun that doesn't make me want to vomit at the puerility of its cheesiness. Sadly I suspect the moment for such puns has passed now that we've engaged in a discussion on the acceptability of certain subject matter. The frisson of spontaneity has long since fizzled out."

He grinned and put on a rubbish fake Scots accent. "What can I bring you from Holland?" He drawled and I chuckled.

"Pointless quote." I reminded him. "You know how I feel about diamonds."

"How do you feel about tulips?" He played Sean Connery's lisp to perfection and I burst out laughing.

"They're pretty but expensive rocks are better." I fluttered my eyelashes at him. "You always were a cunning linguist."

"Oooh good quote!" He actually looked impressed. "How many Moneypenny quotes do you know?"

"There aren't that many good ones." I admitted but put on my plummiest accent. "Flattery will get you nowhere...but don't stop trying." I put the book on the bedside table. "Some day you'll have to make good on your innuendos."

"Oh now that I can do." He stalked towards the bed full of almost feline grace. "Explain the mechanism to me?"

It should have been ridiculous, us quoting James Bond to each other, but strangely it wasn't ridiculous at all. "That's not a Moneypenny quote but I'll do it for you anyway." I winked at him. "The mechanism is...oh James, James...Will you make love to me all the time in England?"

He reached the bed, circled a large hand around my ankle and pulled me flat on the bed. "Day and night." He promised, covering my body with his own and settling his weight all around me.

"I never had you pegged as a James Bond fan." My nose wrinkled in amusement. "It seems strangely out of character."

"I admire his single-minded dedication." He replied easily, a twinkle in his eye. "No matter what happens, how many things get blown up or how many suits he wrecks he always gets the girl."

Suddenly it didn't seem so funny. "Was that fair warning?" I asked quietly and he kissed me, deep and long.

"Yes lover, that was fair warning." He kissed the tip of my nose. "You _will_ be my wife." He smiled at me as he slid a hand under my top and gently ran his fingers over the curve of my bra. "Rebecca Northman has a certain...ring to it, don't you think?"

"You can't base a marriage on a good surname." My voice was muffled by him pulling my top over my head but he still heard me.

"Of course not but when you add it to a handsome husband, a life of luxury, great sex and being worshipped for the angel you are every day for the rest of your life, suddenly it becomes an attractive concept."

I couldn't argue with that. Lack of modesty aside he was absolutely right – it was definitely an attractive concept. But was it enough to make up for a sunless and childless existence?

"What are you thinking?" He asked, tugging my jeans down my legs and I gazed at him.

"I was weighing my options." I explained quietly. "I can't lie to you Eric – you make a good case but I don't know if it's enough."

"Don't decide yet." He shimmied me out of my pants. "I'm still working on it."

"I can see that." I said wrily and he grinned, unhooking my bra with practised fingers and throwing it gaily over his shoulder.

"Is it working?" He asked, making me gasp as he captured my breast with his mouth and for a while all conversation was forgotten.

Afterwards we lay listening to the firemen outside with their electric saws and something suddenly occurred to me. "Hey Eric."

"What?" He was tracing lazy circles on my back as we snuggled together.

"Eric, it's Christmas Eve."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Please review – I do love hearing your thoughts on my characters and what I've done with CH's characters.**

**This chapter contains a fairly decent portion of lemony goodness lol.**

**Enjoy :D**

When it sounded like they were almost done cutting a hole through the ice we quickly dressed and went downstairs to wait for them. Thorfinn looked uncharacteristically broody and I sidled up to him while Pam and Eric looked out the front door.

"What's up?" I asked, bumping his shoulder good-naturedly and he looked at me with something akin to pity in his eyes.

"There are vampires out there." He told me softly. "We cannot hide this Rebecca. There is no going back for you, for any of us now."

I didn't understand. "What do you mean there's no going back? Going back on what?"

"You have become part of our world whether you want to or not and if my brother truly loves you, as I believe he does, he must now place you absolutely under his protection." It still wasn't sinking in and he knew it. "Rebecca, the Nyx has made you a force to be reckoned with. An offensive and defensive weapon of immeasurable power. Half the supernaturals out there will want to kill you and the other half will want to use you. You are no longer safe. If you do not return to Louisiana with Eric then he must remain here."

"But..." I was speechless. "I didn't...it wasn't...I was..."

"We know it was an accident." Eric said gently, turning from the door. There was pity in his eyes too. "But it is done and it cannot be changed. We'll talk about it when the circus has gone home."

"They're through." I had spent enough time with Pam over the last few days to detect the edge in her voice. Eric held my chin in his strong fingers and looked into my eyes.

"We'll talk tonight, I promise." He kissed my forehead and then released me, moving me behind him protectively as he went to stand at Thorfinn's right hand. I only had a second to think that it might be a symbolic positioning before all hell broke loose. The section of ice they had cut around imploded inwards with massive force hurling chunks of ice as big as my head through the door. Eric spun faster than I could blink and flung his arms around me. I felt the thuds vibrating through his chest as he was battered from behind by the flying ice. I didn't even have time to scream.

The next thing there was a snarling and growling going on and I couldn't see what was happening but the wet sounding thunks and gurgles couldn't be anything other than a vicious fight. Sirens started up and I could hear Elle and Greg screaming into their radios for assistance.

"What's happening?" I whispered and Eric raised his head to look back over his shoulder.

"I'm not sure. Are you hurt?"

"No." I mentally evaluated my body. "I didn't get hit. Are you hurt?"

He shrugged around me. "I will heal. Stay here."

He pushed me into the recess under the stairs and went to help Thorfinn to his feet from where he'd been knocked over by the ice. The king stalked to the door and bellowed for silence. Surprisingly it fell instantly and I risked peeking out from my hiding place. The small gap between my door and the ice wall was full of vampires and people in varying degrees of health. "What is the meaning of this?" Demanded Thorfinn, stalking right out into the mass of people and getting into one vampire's face. "Release him now! What are you doing?" The vampire reluctantly dropped the man he had been pounding and I watched his feet retreat from view as someone dragged him back through the hole in the ice.

"My king." A large vampire stepped through the ranks. "We feared you were under attack and sought to defend you. Are you well?"

"Yes Kai, I am well." Thorfinn was still utterly consumed by rage. His face did not betray him but I could see it in the line of his body. "Why did you think I was under attack and how did the fight start?"

"Your guards were watching the house when the ice tower went up." Kai explained. "They summoned us immediately. The shifters started the fight."

"Shifters?" Thorfinn studied the bloodied men standing in betwixt the vampires and I studied them too. What on earth were shifters? One of them, a huge man with greying hair that I knew lived just round the corner, jutted his chin pugnaciously.

"This girl is one of ours." He declared. "She may keep house with bloodsuckers but she's a good woman." There was a faint murmuring around him as other friends and neighbours agreed. "This smells of fae magic." He waved at the ice wall. "When your lot burst through we assumed she was under attack and came to defend her."

I wriggled out from my hidey hole and came to stand at the front door. "Thanks Peter." I tried to smile at him but it was hard when he was clearly hurt trying to defend my honour and I had no idea what was going on. "Are you badly hurt? Can I patch you up?"

He shook his head. "It's nothing major but thanks anyway. Are you going to be okay?"

I looked around at the vampires uncertainly. "I think so." I told him hesitantly and he nodded.

"Then we shall leave. If you need us you know where I am."

"Thanks." I held my hand out and he stepped into the porch so I could lean up to kiss his grizzled cheek. He blushed and backed away quickly, smiling shyly. Somewhere behind me I heard Eric sigh and I resolved to question him about it later.

"Take the others and go home Kai." Thorfinn said wearily. "I am remaining here this night. The sheriff and I have much to discuss. I will return to court tomorrow."

For a long, long moment I thought Kai would defy him but eventually he backed down. "Yes my king." He backed away and they blurred out of sight. I didn't realise I was shaking until Pam poked me in the side.

"For God's sake man up girl!" She hissed almost silently. "You cannot show weakness." I nodded jerkily and took a deep breath as the Police finally got through the ice.

"Are you okay?" Elle asked and I nodded, blinking furiously to stop the tears from filling my eyes.

"I'm fine." I managed. "It was all a big misunderstanding and now that we can get in and out we're fine. Really." She didn't look convinced but there wasn't anything they could do if no-one was prepared to make a complaint. She noted the details of everyone there and after checking again that I was ok they got back into the Police car and drove away.

I thanked the firemen for cutting us out and gave them a tin of biscuits I had going spare. They accepted it gratefully and wished me a merry Christmas as they climbed back into their truck. With a start I realised it was Christmas Eve already and that made me sad. Here I was, planning to spend a quiet Christmas with the man I loved and the closest thing to a relative he had back home and suddenly I was in the middle of what I just knew was going to be a big mess of politics. I sighed and closed the door. The last of the gawkers was starting to drift away and there was no point letting any more heat out of the house.

"Are you okay?" Eric asked quietly and my shoulders slumped.

"I guess we really need to talk." I admitted. "I'll go put the kettle on."

We sat around the kitchen table and they watched me eat breakfast while they tried to gather their thoughts. It was Thorfinn that broke the silence.

"Eric, my brother. You know I cannot walk away from this."

Eric nodded. "But you will not use her." He crossed his arms and a small smile played at the corners of his mouth. "I'd like to see you try if I'm honest but the truth is that you will not get without giving where my Rebecca is concerned."

"What are you talking about?" I glared at them over my cup of tea and Eric sighed.

"How to simplify a very complex situation...?" He mused.

"The long and short of it is that I'm in trouble." Thorfinn said bluntly. "I've just had to execute my second for going behind my back to plan an invasion by the English King. I have a fractured court and no-one strong enough to back me up if we get invaded."

"Hence the alliance?" I questioned and Thorfinn nodded.

"Eric is a perfect for my second. He is strong and immensely clever and with you at his side I do not know that anyone would dare attack us openly."

"I will not be part of your world King of Scotland." I told him flatly. "I have no interest in politics. I just want to make my jewellery and live a quiet life. By all means you and Eric can work this out between you but keep me out of it."

"Court is the only place we can protect you." Thorfinn leaned forward. "You are in grave danger Rebecca and you leave me no choice. I cannot let anyone else have you because you are too dangerous and there are those out there that would treat you brutally. If you do not return to Louisiana with Eric then I will have to remove you to my court by force, if only for your own good."

That shocked me into silence and I barely felt Eric's hand creeping over my own under the table. "You do not have to be active in our world Rebecca." He tried to reassure me. "Whether we stay here or you come back to the States with me you can still have your quiet life and make your jewellery, it will just be with more secure surroundings."

"You were just talking about using me!" I pointed out. "You will take everything I have to give before it's offered. Don't you remember what you said to me when we first met – that if we were back home at yours you would be thinking of all the different ways that you could use me? That being here, being so close to human and not having that Machiavellian streak was what you loved above all else about my home? Are you really prepared to give all that up Eric? Because that's what will happen – the minute you trap me in a gilded cage I will suffocate and the piece of your heart that I have held dear in my own will wither and die away with me."

"You will not be trapped." He protested. "You may continue as before."

"How?" I pulled my hand away from his and got up to start pacing. "I'm human Eric. I can't live in your strange gloaming world. If I am kept from the sunlight I will get sick. You're asking me to give up my family and friends...anyone that's a day walker. Except you're not asking me at all." I gave a short bitter laugh. "You're trying to tell me. Nothing will be the same. Didn't you see the joy on Pam's face at being able to shop like a normal person only a few days ago? That's what you'll be taking me away from – everything I accept and know in my life, everything I take for granted."

"We can work it out." He said stubbornly, the faintest stirring of anger in his tone but my next argument totally threw him.

"Like we can 'work out' having kids?" I asked quietly. "Eric, I love you. You know that, but I just cannot comprehend a sunless, childless existence."

We stared at each other across the table until Pam cleared her throat. "The fact of the matter is that you have no choice." She stated plainly. "You will either go to court here or go back to Louisiana. This is not up for debate. How you work out your life when you get there is entirely up to you. There's no rule that says you have to be awake at night and sleep in the day just because you live with vampires."

"She's right." Thorfinn sounded almost grateful for her intervention. "There is no reason you cannot remain a day walker. We just need you somewhere we can protect you. The details of it are irrelevant. The main issue right now is where you go and that depends on what Eric's decision is."

"And what is your decision?" I asked Eric. He shrugged helplessly.

"I have not made it yet, lover." He studied his hands. "I thought it was a decision we would make together when we have talked it through."

"This is wise. God knows the two of you are a pain in the ass when you're arguing." Pam gave us a hard stare and Eric growled at her but she ignored him. "You've got to stop shutting him down every time he mentions marriage." She told me pointedly. "It's the sensible option and somewhere in that pretty little head of yours you know it. At least talk."

"Fine." I blew air out of my lungs in resignation. "But not now. Later, when we're alone."

Eric nodded and pulled me over to sit by him again, once more taking my hand under the table.

"Did you think any more on the situation?" Thorfinn asked Eric and he nodded.

"I think you would be wise to try and forge an alliance with the Welsh Queen." He suggested thoughtfully. "There is no love lost between them and the English and if Anton has to split his resources between two borders so far apart he will find mounting a full scale invasion difficult. The trade agreements would also be beneficial to you – Wales is a principality rich with profit."

"You sound almost like you've dealt with them before!" Thorfinn joked but it fell flat and Eric's hand stilled in mine.

"I have." He eventually said slowly, refusing to look at me and nausea twisted my gut.

"You swore to me you would not kill him." My hands had started trembling and bile was rising in my throat.

"And I did not." He was still refusing to look at me.

"What did you do?" His jaw flexed and hysteria seeped into my tone. "Eric Northman! What did you do?"

"It was my fault." Pam confessed quietly and I stared at her. What did my past have to do with Pam's second? "I was checking you out when the master first spoke of you like I would any prospective mate or employee. I saw the pictures."

"But..." I trailed off miserably. The pictures could only be found in my medical records, nowhere else. There was no Police file, no private copy. If they had seen my medical records they knew everything. My stomach heaved and I barely made it to the bathroom before I threw up all the breakfast I had just eaten, sobbing and retching both at the resurgence of my memories and the sting of violation I felt at their casual invasion of my privacy. The humiliation settled on me once more like a blanket and I huddled on the bathroom floor and cried.

"I'm sorry." Pam said stiffly from the doorway and then she really took in my distress. "I did not know, I swear it." She awkwardly got down on her knees and tried to gather me into a hug. "The master mentioned nothing of your past to me – I was just checking you were healthy."

"And instead you found what?" I hiccupped between sobs. "A pathetic creature too stupid to walk away from the man beating and raping her on a daily basis?"

"Actually no." She sounded sad. "I didn't see that at all. I looked at the pictures of your wounds and the first thing that struck me was how the hell you were upright and walking, that you must have a backbone of steel to endure the agony." She shuddered. "I read the lists of the surgery you had. I read the transcripts of your counselling sessions. I read the private observations of your doctor and the women from the refuge. Rebecca you were never a pathetic creature. You're the bravest damn woman I've ever met and that's saying something. A lesser woman would have crumbled, played the victim. In you I saw a worthy mate for the master and you have yet to prove me wrong. Did you know that the other women at the refuge talked about you? They said you were their brightest star, the one that gave the most and inspired others to live again." She stiffly patted my hair. "I'm not very good at this whole friendly casual with other women shit. Especially with mouth breathers." No kidding, it was like being embraced by an ironing board. "But I suspect it will comfort you to know that I did not give the details of your trauma to Eric. He does not know anything that you have suffered unless you have told him yourself."

That surprised me. "You didn't?" My voice came out dazed.

"It was not my place to tell." She stated simply. "I may be a beautiful corpse but I have not forgotten what it means to be a woman." She grinned as she turned my own words back on me but the smile turned slightly sour. "I just could not let it go unpunished when I realised you had not taken revenge. It is in my nature to avenge and protect the master and in giving you his heart that brings you under my remit too. I kept back the worst of the pictures but showed him a few of the milder ones and persuaded him to take action on your behalf."

"What did you do to him?" I didn't really want to know but I could not live with the guilt of him being killed. It would eat away at my soul to think that a life had ended on my say so.

"Nothing that he did not do to you." There was a strange satisfaction in her voice and I shuddered, thinking back over the many terrible and agonising things he had done to me. "He will never harm another woman again." She stated and I nodded. That, at least, was something I could agree with. I couldn't condone their violence but the thought that he would never harm another woman again was a massive relief. I had lain awake at night for months trying to make peace with myself over my decision not to prosecute – the thought that my cowardice meant another victim could fall foul of his charms tore me into little guilt-ridden pieces on a daily basis until I realised that he was still killing me from a distance and I was the tool of my own demise.

Eventually I dried my eyes and rinsed my face until some of the blotchiness had faded. "Do you think I should tell him?" I asked Pam and she studied me carefully.

"Not everything." Was her measured response. "I think there are some things he needs to know about to understand why the tea-cup humans are so important to you and why you will never be used again. But that is a decision for you to make." I nodded again. She was making sense and I couldn't force Eric to make choices without understand the basis of them.

We went back to the kitchen and the men eyed us anxiously. "Are you well?" Eric asked neutrally, afraid I would bite his head off or something, but I smiled at him.

"I am and I'm sorry I over-reacted." I went to him and cupped his beautiful cheeks in my hands. "We have some decisions to make. If you're ready to talk to me then I think I'm ready to talk to you." His eyes flicked to Pam and she was nodding approval so he smiled and got to his feet.

"We'll go upstairs."

Leaving Pam and Thorfinn in the kitchen we headed up to the bedroom and lay on the covers on our sides looking at each other. We talked for hours about my past and my fears and how we could work round them living together. He wept with me as I talked about the miscarriage that had finally driven me over the abyss into walking out and gripped my hand with fierce triumph as I explained the whys and wherefores of how I had decided to live again.

We talked about what it would mean for us, for his humanity, to be consumed by the vampire world and how we could try and stay apart. We talked about the long summer months when he would effectively be hibernating and I would be alone.

We talked about the possibility of children, about genetics researchers that were attempting to make human children through surrogates using elements of vampire DNA so that Eric could in truth be a father. We talked about his joy at finding his brother lived and the wonder that suffused him every time he realised he truly had more family than just me and Pam.

We talked until my throat was dry and there were no more words to say and silence fell between us.

Typically it was Eric that lowered the tone. "Now, to continue with my campaign of persuasion..." He stretched an arm around my hips and pulled me to him, hooking one leg over mine to capture me wholly to him. Raising his head he nuzzled at my neck and I could feel the tingles all the way down to my toes. Trailing his tongue up the side of my throat he nipped gently at my ear and the hand in the small of my back pressed me firmly against the growing bulge in his jeans. He growled softly as I moved against him and rolled us over so I was on my back looking up at him.

"I love it when you wear button up blouses." He grinned, pushing himself up onto his knees. "It's like unwrapping a present." Starting at the top be began slowly unbuttoning one tiny button at a time, laying kisses on the skin revealed beneath. When they were finally done he spread the shirt wide and gazed down at me with quiet reverence in his eyes. "God..." he breathed hoarsely. "You're so beautiful." I blushed and dipped my head slightly but he caught my chin and leaned down to kiss me. "You are beautiful." I stared up at him, this gorgeous dream of a man and felt humbled that he thought me beautiful.

He lifted me up and shucked me out of my shirt, unhooking my bra while he was at it and throwing both over his shoulder with one of his quirky lop-sided smiles. I reached for his vest but he caught both my hands in one of his and held them over my head. "No." He whispered in my ear. "This is all about you." Still pinning my arms above my head he lowered his mouth to my breast and sucked my already pebbled nipple in between his lips, grazing the sensitive skin lightly with his teeth. It was exquisite torture and my back bowed, pressing me into his mouth as his tongue swirled around and around my nipple, occasionally flicking across it in a way that made me gasp.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more he moved to the other one and started over again, teasing it into an aching peak with lips and teeth. "Eric, please..." I murmured and he smiled, coming up to kiss my mouth, teasing tongue delving in to find my own.

"Please what?" He whispered, releasing me and I closed my eyes as he laid feathery kisses along my jaw. "Please keep doing what you're doing?" His lips moved to my collarbone. "Please stop?" He trailed fiery kisses up the side of my neck. "Please take your clothes off and make love to me before I lose my mind?"

"The last one." I gasped before he claimed my mouth again and I could feel his silent laughter even as he kissed me.

"All things in time." He placed one last kiss on the tip of my nose and then sat up, releasing my hands so he could undo my jeans. They followed the way of my top, shortly followed by my briefs and there I was, laid out all naked before him. Shame warred with wanton desire as he stopped again to look at me but the wonder in his eyes had been replaced with something darker and more predatory and I shivered with anticipation as he slowly pulled his top off.

I raised up onto my elbows so I could watch when he stood up to remove his jeans and he grinned as I bit my lip. "See something you like?" He purred and I chuckled.

"You're passing fair." I demurred and he gasped in mock outrage.

"Passing fair? _Passing fair?"_ He shook back that glorious mane of blond hair and focused on me intently. "Maybe you're just not looking close enough." One moment he was standing by the bed, the next he was on top of me, a fierce cage of muscle and flesh and arousal. I hadn't even seen him move. I could feel the thick hard length of him pressing into my belly and he rocked his hips gently so I could be in no doubt about his excitement.

"Your body shows your words were in jest." He whispered softly, nipping my ear in a way that sent shivers all the way down to my core. He slid a hand down between us and gently stroked his fingers through my folds. "You're so wet for me." He slipped one finger inside and then two, gently thrusting them until I moved helplessly beneath him. "So hot and wet and tight." He purred, his thumb brushing over my sweet spot as he thrust slowly again with his hand. I gasped, my back bowing, and he smiled, sitting up so he could palm himself with his other hand.

"Tell me how much you want me." I knew he was speaking but I was mesmerised by the sight of his beautiful hand pumping away at his shaft. "Rebecca." His voice was commanding and I briefly tore my eyes away from what he was doing. "Tell me how much you want me."

"I don't." My eyes dropped back to his hand, stroking that hard length. "I don't want you Eric. I need you. More than I need to breathe." He growled deep in his throat and I could feel the pleasure that thrummed through him like a quiet hum caressing my skin. His hands moved faster and my eyes fluttered closed as I came close to the edge, but just when I was tensing to go he stopped and shifted over me, positioning himself at my entrance. Then he waited.

"Eric please." My breathing was ragged and I moved against him. "Please."

"Tell me you will be mine." He murmured, laying kisses along my collarbone as he rubbed himself agonisingly slowly against me.

"Oh god! Eric!" I was going crazy with the swelling need to have him inside me. I ached for him. I _burned_ for him.

"Tell me you want this every day of forever." He commanded, gently increasing the pressure of his hips as his lips once again suckled my breast.

"Eric...I...I..." I couldn't think, couldn't breathe, I was drowning in sensation.

"Say yes." He whispered against my skin again and again "say yes". He captured my gaze with his own and the intensity of his eyes bored right into my soul. "Say yes."

He shifted slightly and the need was just too much to bear. "Yes!" I moaned softly, writhing beneath him. "Yes, okay...god...yes."

"You are mine lover." He crowed fiercely and slid into me, claiming his territory in one long sure triumphant stroke. "Mine."

He held my eyes with his own as he set a steady but gently rhythm and our fingers twined together as we moved. "I love you." He murmured, so softly I almost didn't hear it and I stretched up to kiss him.

"I love you too." I whispered back. "Oh...oh...that feels so good." My eyes were fluttering closed but he gently rubbed his nose against mine in an Eskimo kiss.

"I want to look in your eyes." He said when I had focused on him. "I want to watch."

"I'm close." I whispered and he smiled.

"I know." He released one of my hands and slid a strong arm under my hips, lifting me to him so he could get deeper. He picked up the speed and before I knew I was coming I was shuddering all over with the intensity of it, shaking helplessly as he brought me again and again until he came himself with a roar of triumph. He thrust again, once, twice and a third time before lowering himself gently so we were melded from top to toe and then he smiled and kissed my forehead. Outside the snow was drifting gently and the bells were ringing in the midnight hour. He brushed the hair away from my face and kissed me again, gently on the lips.

"Rebecca..."

"Mmmm?"

"Happy Christmas."


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Please review. I haven't had a single one for the last 2 chapters. It's undermining my confidence lol.**

It was after 5pm when I awoke and Eric was backing through the bedroom door with a cup of tea and a cream cheese and bacon bagel.

"Hey." He set the tray down on the bedside table and leaned over to kiss me, soft hair sweeping across my throat as I smiled sleepily up at him. "Happy Christmas."

"And to you." I reached up and hugged him to me. "Happy Christmas. I can't believe you brought me breakfast."

"I like spoiling you." He grinned as I released him and helped me up so he could settle the tray on my lap. "Pam couldn't quite believe it either. You'd better hurry up and eat – she's desperate to open presents and I ordered her not to until we got there."

"That was mean!" Feeling guilty for making them wait I tucked into the bagel while he watched me eat, idly twirling a lock of my hair through his fingers. "How long have you been up?" I asked around a mouthful of food and he smirked.

"It's kind of a constant thing when you're around." His eyes were twinkling and it took me a moment to get the joke.

"That's not funny." I went bright red and he just looked so wicked with that cute little smirk and his twinkling blue eyes that I couldn't help giggling. "You're terrible!" I chastised him and he nodded modestly.

"I try my best." He watched me eat every last morsel and then whisked my dressing gown out of the cupboard so we could head straight down, but before we got to the door he took my hands.

I looked up at him, wondering what he was doing, and then noticed he was pulling my ring. "What are you doing?" I asked as he slid it off my finger.

"You agreed to marry me last night." He smirked again as he slid the ring onto the 4th finger of my left hand. "We might as well put this ring where it belongs until we can buy you a proper one."

I blinked and stared at him. "I didn't agree to marry you last night." I was confused but certain he had it wrong.

"You did." He insisted. "I asked you if you wanted this every day of forever and your response was something along the lines of 'Yes, oh god...Eric..yes!'. Sounds to me like you want to be married."

Oh, so he wanted to try and sneak it in under the radar did he? Stuff that. "Eric, international law states that acquiescence obtained under duress is invalid. Aside from which, we don't technically have to be married to wake up together every morning. You still need to ask the question and I am still going to say no, at least until we know where we stand with everything."

"Under duress?" His smile was dark and lazy and it flicked all my switches even as I braced for impact. "I'd hardly call what we were doing tortuous."

"It was a form of sensory deprivation and you know it." I pointed out but he merely smiled.

"Sensory deprivation in what way?" His voice was husky as he leaned in and gently nipped at my neck and the stirrings of mischief started up in my soul.

"You took me to the point where all I could think about, all I needed was the feel of you inside me." I explained. "It's like starving a man of water for 5 days then holding a cool pint glass of it in front of his face and demanding he answers your questions before you'll give it to him. You'd say anything to quench the thirst." I walked my fingers down the front of his top. "Imagine how you would feel if I got you naked and caressed you all over then got down on my knees and took you in my hands." I pressed my palm into the front of his jeans where he already had an erection straining at the fabric. Massaging gently I continued. "Imagine how it would feel as I worked you to where you were aching to feel something hot and wet around your length and I'm kneeling there with my mouth open but I won't suck, won't close my lips around you or tease you with my tongue until you tell me what I want to hear. What would you promise me just to make me do it?"

"What would you ask?" His voice was strained. I popped the button on his jeans and slid my hand inside, stroking slowly but firmly up and down his length. He gasped and closed his eyes. "What would you ask?" He asked again breathlessly and I grinned.

"Oh I don't know." I responded breezily. "But I'm sure it'll be something you'll growl about later." I whipped my hand out of his trousers, patted the bulge in his jeans like one would pet a dog and smiled. "Now that you've gotten the picture be a dear and button up and we'll go open some presents."

I actually had the door open before he realised what had happened and he roared. There was no other word for it. An all-alpha-male, shut-that-door-right-now-or-so-help-me-god-I-will-fuck-you-in-front-of-anyone-watching kind of sound.

"Play nicely Eric." I said quietly, moving slowly towards the opening but he caught me around the waist and crushed me to the front of him.

"That was not nice." He growled, plundering my mouth with his fiery tongue to remind me who was in charge here.

"Neither is trying to trick me into marrying you." I pointed out when he let me up for air and he growled again, the sound rising up from deep within his chest and making my toes curl with anticipation. Finally he blew out a breath and sighed.

"You will be mine." He promised and released me. "You just don't know it yet."

It wasn't that I didn't know it. The man was as inevitable as death (fnar fnar). I didn't have a hope in hell of stopping him when he decided he wanted something but I'd be damned if he was going to take away all vestiges of my free will. He'd get it eventually but by God he was going to have to work for it.

When we got downstairs Pam was hovering about in the hallway as though she couldn't bear to be in the same room as the presents without opening them. Somewhere in the kitchen Thorfinn was making tea and it made me smile. There was only one person in the house who drank tea which meant he was making it for me. Bless his cottons.

"Happy Christmas Pam." I leaned up to give her a kiss on that flawless, cool cheek and to my everlasting astonishment she embraced me.

"Happy Christmas Rebecca." Her eyes were twinkling. If she'd had a pulse I suspect her cheeks would have been flushed. "I've never had a proper Christmas before." She confessed in response to my quizzical look. "I don't know if I've done it right. With the presents."

I chuckled. "I'm sure they'll be perfect Pam." I reassured her. "Besides, even if they're terrible you'll never be able to out-pants my grandmother. Last year she got me a set of loofahs. The year before that it was a white patent plastic handbag she got sent for free from a teleshopping channel." I shuddered. "It was hideous." Pam laughed and began to relax as we went through to the living room. I switched the lights on for the Christmas tree and got out the traditional Santa hat while Thorfinn set up the tea pot on my small coffee table and poured the tea. I lit the fire quickly, grateful that someone had relaid it before I got up and then we were ready. I handed Eric the Santa hat. "Put it on." I commanded as he began to look mutinous but when he realised he wasn't getting any support from either Pam or Thorfinn he grudgingly crammed it on his head, daring anyone to laugh.

"What happens now?" Pam asked and I grinned.

"Eric looks behind the sofa in the corner and sees if Santa left anything for the good little boys and girls." Totally nonplussed Eric went to the corner and leaned over the sofa.

"What are these?" He asked and I grinned.

"Pull them out."

He did as I asked and hauled out four small stockings. "That one's got my name on it!" Pam shrieked and I winced. I was used to scary Pam. Hyperactive Pam was downright creepy.

"So it has." Grinning, Eric handed it to her. "And this one has Rebecca's name on it." He handed mine across and looked at the remaining two. "This one has my name on it."

"And the last one is Thorfinn's."

They all stared at me. "But you didn't know I'd be here for Christmas." The King was astonished. "How did you have presents?"

I shrugged. "It's nothing special, just a few Christmas traditions my family has and some things that I had made that I thought you would like. I didn't have time to make you a personalised stocking so I had to use the spare one that used to belong to my brother but if you'd like to come back next year I can make one." He reached across and took my hand, graciously kissing the back of it.

"Thank you." His voice was gruff. "It has been a long time since I felt embraced by family and home." Blushing furiously I nodded and hid my shyness in my own presents. My mother had dropped off my stocking before Eric had even arrived so I'd had time to hide them.

Pam was opening a drawstring pouch and tipped a trio of gold-splated sixpences into her palm. "They're for prosperity." I explained quietly. "Normally they'd be chocolate coins but you guys don't eat chocolate." She pulled out the dried spiced tangerine I had carefully made and held it up to me for explanation. "Oranges are traditional at Christmas." I shrugged. I didn't know the whys and wherefores but I pulled out my own fresh tangerine to show her. Just as I pulled out my own sugar mouse Pam found the platinum one I had made her and held it up to the light with a grin on her face. "I don't know." I said before she could even ask. "It's just another tradition."

"I like your family traditions." She grinned showing a lot of fang and I swallowed. Happy Pam was definitely scary. There wasn't much more in the stockings but we all laughed over the screaming balloons and I thought Eric was going to break the puzzle in his stocking when he couldn't figure it out in the first ten seconds. Thorfinn was about to start constructing his puzzle ball when I started clearing up the paper.

"It's time for the main presents." I announced and instantly Pam was barely able to contain herself again. "You're designated Santa Eric." I reminded him. "That means you're in charge of handing them out." I swept the last of the wrappings into a bin bag and returned to my seat as Eric began to dole out the mountain of gifts under the tree.

I opened a few of the presents from my family but then I sat back to watch the others opening their gifts as I did every Christmas with my own family. I loved to give stuff and watch people's delight as they opened them, especially when it was things that I'd made and people realised how much time and effort had gone into it. Pam was delighted with the hot water bottle cover I had felted for her with her name printed on it. She was even more delighted with the bracelet I had made in delicate platinum chainmail patterns. I had carefully fashioned a tiny little Christmas tree and it dangled from the bracelet as a charm. When she showed it to me so that I could check it fit I offered to put her little mouse on it too and she was even more joyous. After a couple of other gifts she opened the book I had given her and just about killed herself laughing.

"What's so funny?" Eric asked and she couldn't even tell him she was laughing so hard. Pink tears streaming down her cheeks she held it up so he could see the cover. "The Bunny Suicides?" Eric turned to me. "What are Bunny Suicides?"

I chuckled. "It's a bunch of crazy ways for rabbits to kill themselves. I thought it would appeal to Pam's sense of humour." Eric was slowly shaking his head.

"I don't know if I should be freaked out or pleased that you know of such things." I was about to say something back when Thorfinn exclaimed something in an ancient language I did not know and we both turned to him. He had an open jewellery box lying in his lap and was staring at it with an unreadable expression.

"Is it okay?" I asked hesitantly. "I wasn't sure. I can make something else if it's-"

"It's perfect." He said firmly. "Perfect." He ran his fingers down the length of the torc woven out of fine gold threads in white and red and yellow and murmured softly to himself. Eric squeezed my hand suddenly and I turned to him.

"Did I do something wrong?" I whispered and he shook his head, pride and empathy warring in his eyes.

"No, you have given him a great gift. A torc such as this was only ever worn by the greatest of chieftains in our time. It was a mark of status – the more intricate and beautiful, the more powerful the chieftain. This truly is a fitting gift for a king."

"Then why is he sad?" I asked and Eric sighed.

"Because, as with me, you have reminded him what it was to be human. We were Viking before we were vampire and the old ways still sing in our blood. You have no idea how precious that gift will be to him." I couldn't believe I'd had it just lying around on my work desk. It was a prototype of an idea I'd been designing for a while and it had just seemed like it would make a nice gift for this royal visitor in my home. Sometimes I wondered if fate was just playing games with me. Leaving Thorfinn to his quiet reflections I finally turned to my own presents. Eric was clearly waiting for me to open them so I almost didn't want to know what he'd bought. Putting off the tiny boxes with his scrawl on them I opened the huge box from Pam.

"I hope it's all right." She hovered anxiously as I started pulling things out and I had to swallow the lump in my throat as I sifted through things. There were northern lights fire cones, my favourite luxury toffee, my favourite scented candles for the lanterns that dotted the house, expensive lingerie that I had looked at many times on the net but never had the money to buy, expensive handmade bath bombs...so many things that were all so utterly familiar.

"It's amazing Pam." I knew my eyes were shiny with tears but I stared at her anyway. "How did you know about all this stuff?"

She looked a little shy. "I knew you were a woman of modest means – I asked the master to make note of the luxuries you purchase when you can afford them so that we could give you the things you love."

"That's so thoughtful of you." I surreptitiously wiped away a tear and grinned at her. "Thank you so much." Putting most of the stuff back in the box I took a handful of the fire cones and threw them in the hearth where they burned with glorious blue and green flames.

"They're quite spectacular." Eric stared and I nodded.

"I spend hours watching them in the winter sometimes, just thinking about stuff. They're beautiful. I've often thought about making them so I can have different colours but I wouldn't have a clue where to buy the chemicals."

"On the internet. Maybe we can do it next month when the snow melts." He suggested and I did not have an answer. He wasn't going to be here next month unless he had made the decision to remain in Scotland and the thought of having him so large in my life and having to move house to court against my will wasn't something I wanted to ruin Christmas with. Turning from the fire I began to open his presents.

They were little charms for my charm bracelet, each one an emerald cut stone edged with what had to be platinum. I had opened three when one of the stones flashed from green to purple and I almost dropped it.

"Tell me that's not what I think it is." I muttered faintly and Eric grinned.

"What do you think it is?"

"Alexandrite?" I winced as he nodded and I set the box down with shaking fingers, looking closely at the others. "Oh my God Eric, what did you do? Look up 'Worlds Rarest Gemstones' on Google or something?"

"Oooh she's good!" Pam grinned. "That's exactly what he did."

"Aren't you going to open the others?" He asked and I swallowed.

"I don't think I can Eric. You can't fool someone as passionate about gems as I am. Alexandrite alone sells for £750 per half carat and that rock there has got to be at least 2. Factoring in rarity of size and cut and suddenly we're looking at about £5000 worth of stone. If this is Tanzanite then this gem has to be worth nearly £2500. I'm scared to see what's in the other boxes."

"Don't be silly." He grinned at me. "Just open them. It's exciting – you have no idea how wonderful it is to be with a woman that isn't interested in regular diamonds. It was fun researching them and finding a way into the market. It's a very exclusive club."

Something about the way he said 'regular diamonds' made me uneasy and I closed my eyes. "Eric, how many of the top ten world's rarest gemstones am I going to find if I open those boxes?"

"Only another 4. You already opened the Jeremejevite and I couldn't get hold of all of them but I have watchers to let me know if they come up for sale."

I thought I was going to pass out. The stone that I had mistaken for aquamarine retailed at $2000 US dollars per carat back in 2005. God alone knew what it was worth now but it was safe to say that the gems sat in my lap were worth what some people earned in a year.

"Please open the others." He said softly and I forced my fingers to move feeling as though I was watching myself from another planet. It was surreal. First came Musgravite, last sold for $35000 US dollars per carat. Then Grandidierite retailing at approximately $100,000 US dollars per carat. Thirdly there was a blue garnet which flashed in the light as I opened the box, last known retail price - $1.5 million US dollars per carat. The fourth box was a large white sapphire, still expensive but not as rare or expensive as the others. The fifth box contained a certified extraterrestrial peridot, another extremely rare stone but again not quite in the same league as the blue garnet. Finally I opened the sixth and last box and just stared, utterly speechless. It was a red diamond, the second most expensive stone in the world at approximately $2.5 million dollars per carat. It sat nestled in its little ruffles of black velvet, winking in the firelight and slightly larger than the others by about a carat.

"I couldn't get jadeite but I didn't think it was half as pretty anyway." Eric said conversationally as I just sat and stared at the stone in the box. After a moment where the whole world seemed to grind to a halt I very carefully set the box down on the coffee table as my blood roared in my ears and then I promptly passed out.

I came round to Pam sniggering while Eric pressed a cool cloth to my forehead.

"Oh my fucking god." The world began to tilt again and I fought the nausea. "You bought me a red diamond. Oh. My. Fucking. God."

"I take it this is a stone of some value?" Thorfinn sounded hugely amused.

"Last known retail price approximately 2.5 million US dollars per carat." I mumbled faintly, resisting the urge to hold onto the floor while the room spun. "And that there looks to be just over 3 carats."

"Why isn't this one set like the others?" Thorfinn asked and Eric had the grace to look a little sheepish.

"I was hoping Rebecca would allow me to have it made into an engagement ring." He admitted and I swallowed again, refusing to open my eyes.

"Well fuck me if that doesn't make it hard to say no." I blew out a breath expressively and I could just feel Eric grinning.

"Was that a yes?" He asked hopefully and I finally opened my eyes to glare at him.

"No. That's a you'll-have-to-let-me-stare-at-the-pretty-sparkly-for-a-couple-of-hours-until-I've-decided-if-it's-a-good-enough-reason-to-say-yes-in-the-face-of-everything-else."

"I'll take that." He shrugged and helped me upright. When I was sure I wasn't going to pass out again I started putting the lids back on the boxes.

"Why aren't you putting them on your bracelet?" Eric asked and I blinked at him.

"A, because I can't walk round with that much value hanging off my wrist, I'd die of paranoia, and b, because they're staying in the safe until I can insure them."

"They're already insured." He said smugly. "What kind of gift would it be if you spent the rest of your days paying for them?"

I sighed and stared again at the neat little row of boxes. "I'll compromise." I said eventually. "I'll wear the not so expensive ones and keep the extra-rare ones for special occasions. Is that okay?"

He shrugged. "Whatever makes you happy, beloved, whatever makes you happy."

With certain of the gems stashed safely away in my heavy duty safe and the rest dangling from my charm bracelet I embarked on cooking Christmas dinner for one. It didn't take long as I didn't eat much and was only having a duck breast instead of cooking a whole turkey. While I cooked, the vamps sat round the kitchen table playing board games and laughing. It made me smile. I bet neither Eric nor Pam had ever played a board game before coming to Scotland. I suspected that back home they were so important and scary that they didn't do normal stuff like having fun just for the sake of having fun. I mediated as they played a short and brutal game of Monopoly and then ended up wading in to put them right when they got the Mancala out. Finally I settled down to eat my dinner while they cracked jokes and pulled crackers and we all sat there with paper hats on our heads laughing uproariously. I had splashed out for their Christmas dinner and purchased a six pack of Royalty, figuring that they could at least join the festivities in style, and it went down a treat.

We sat at the table until the small hours as I picked my way through dinner and dessert and they played games and told jokes. It was 2 hours before dawn when Thorfinn finally sighed.

"I must leave you and return to court as I said I would." He announced sadly. "I thank you all for a wondrous time and especially you, Rebecca, for allowing me to stay in your beautiful home and showing me such great warmth and affection."

"You are more than welcome in my home any time, King of Scotland." I was blushing again and he grinned at me.

"I will see you again. Shortly I hope." He kissed my hand and rose from the table. He kissed Pam's hand too and Eric went to walk him to the door. I wanted to wave him off as I would with any other guest but I figured he and Eric would need some time together to say their goodbyes and piled my dishes in the sink.

"What do you think the master intends to do?" Pam asked me quietly and I sighed.

"I don't know but my heart tells me that he wishes to come to Scotland if only for Thorfinn's sake. If things at court are truly as bad as the king believes then Eric may lose his brother again too soon after finding him after all that time."

"He is different here." She pointed out. "I cannot remember the last time I heard him laugh so. It is deeply disturbing and yet wonderful. I believe if we move it will be as much for you as for his brother."

"You would come with him?" I don't know why that surprised me but Pam shrugged.

"He is a good master. We work well together and I have had much fun here. I would enjoy the shopping if nothing else."

That made me laugh and it was when I reached up to brush the hair out of my face that she saw the ring.

"I knew it!" She shrieked.

"Knew what?" Eric asked, returning to the kitchen looking tired and sad.

"The ring! She said yes!" I stared at her and then looked at my hands. Oh for fucks sake. I had forgotten to switch the ring back after Eric had moved it that morning and it was still on my engagement ring finger.

"No, it's not what it looks like." I started to protest but it was too late. Pam was already firing up the computer and searching for a pad and pen to start writing lists. I was too exhausted to argue and looked beseechingly at Eric but he was happy to let Pam carry right on so I gave up.

"I'm going to bed." I told them. "Happy Christmas you guys."

"Happy Christmas."


	9. Final Chapter

Eric woke me up on Boxing Day with a tray of warm pastries and coffee.

"What time is it?" I mumbled sleepily, hauling myself upright and he fluffed the pillows behind me cheerfully.

"Just after 6." He grinned broadly. "I've been awake for 2 hours!" Chuckling at his expression I took a sip of the perfect coffee and sighed happily.

"What did I do to deserve breakfast in bed?" I asked jokingly and his face lit up.

"I opened my Christmas present from you. We got so caught up in the stones yesterday that I didn't notice it tucked in beside the sofa." He said sofa in his best British accent. He loved that word and always mimicked when I said it.

"And? What did you think?" I asked cautiously.

"It's amazing. Where on earth did you buy it? I didn't know they still made Hefnatafl boards."

I winced. "They don't. I commissioned the board from a local stonemason and made the pieces myself using metal clay. I thought you could teach me how to play – I didn't really understand the rules or why one side has more players than the other."

"What did you do? Look up Viking games on the internet?" He grinned, turning my own words back on myself and I shrugged.

"I wanted to get you something that reminded you of home." I said simply. "You have everything you need or want so it had to be something for fun." He was looking at me like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry so I turned back to my breakfast, giving him some time to pull himself together.

"I think that is why I love you." He said suddenly and I nearly choked on my croissant as he startled me. Rubbing my back until I stopped coughing he smiled. "You always seem to see straight to the heart of a person. I didn't know I needed a home until I met you. I had cars and houses and more money than I could spend in a mortal span but I didn't know that my heart was empty until you filled it with board games and archaeology trips and hot water cushions." He looked astonished by this fact. "There is _joy_ in my heart." He said it like it was a dirty word and he looked so bemused by this that I couldn't help myself. I roared with laughter and pushed the tray away before I spilt the coffee everywhere. He lifted it to the blanket box at the foot of the bed and then gathered me up for a cuddle as I giggled away.

"You do love me, do you not?" He asked and I squeezed him.

"You know I do. But then I love looking at piles of ancient rocks and reading the National Geographic too so that's not really saying much..." I teased and he growled happily, tickling me until I dissolved into a giggling, quivering heap.

When I was all laughed out and my sides were aching he made me finish my breakfast while he selected something for me to wear. Unerringly he went for my favourite jeans and I smothered a smile behind my coffee mug. That's my vamp, attention to detail as always. He picked a vest top, a long-sleeved tee and then a cute cable-knit sweater to go on top.

"Are we going somewhere?" I asked, eyeing the pile of clothing as he added woolly socks and underwear. "That's an awful lot of layers."

"Yes we are, but I'm not telling you where." He grinned at me, his blue eyes twinkling. "Are you done?" He took my now empty breakfast tray away and watched avidly as I dragged myself out of bed and started getting dressed. He loved watching me dress almost as much as he loved taking all my clothes off. I never really understood that but it kept him happy so I wasn't going to complain.

Finally toasty in my many layers of clothing I followed him downstairs to a scene of utter weirdness. Pam had appropriated my cork board and had clearly spent her last two waking hours printing random images.

"What is that?" I asked as she closely studied a montage of flowers and fabric prints interspersed with the odd photograph of piles of rocks.

"It's a mood board." She replied absently, shuffling through a notepad lying by her computer which looked to be full of list after list. "I looked up wedding planning on the internet and it said we needed a mood board." She pinned a section of fire cone packaging to the board and I wondered where pine cones fitted into wedding planning. Eric looked just as confused as I did but shrugged easily.

"We're just heading out for a bit. Won't be gone long." He said and Pam nodded.

"Oh, before you go, I sent an official request to the King of France." She grinned at me, all fang and pastel shades. "We're going wedding dress shopping in Paris."

"Oh. My. God." I said faintly.

"That's excellent Pam." Eric took my arm and steered me out of the kitchen quickly before I could start an argument.

"Just let her be excited." He told me gently, stuffing my arms into my coat and zipping it up for me. "She is fascinated by these human things. It is not just me that you have made feel human again." He selected a hat and pulled it over my head, handing me a pair of gloves before kneeling down to tug my snow boots on. I just stood there and let him dress me, feeling like an overgrown school kid. It suddenly occurred to me that this is what life with Eric would be like. I would never have to do anything for myself ever again if I so chose. The thought was not as disturbing as it should have been.

Finally he produced a black cashmere scarf and tied it around my eyes so I couldn't see a thing. "Isn't this going just a little too far?" I protested, hearing rustling as he shrugged on his own coat. "It's not as though you can take me anywhere I haven't already been."

"Stop arguing with me woman." I sensed him come closer and then he scooped me up into his arms easily as though I weighed no more than a feather. "Bye Pam!" He called back over his shoulder and then we were out the front door and into the night. The air was bitterly cold but there didn't seem to be much wind and it was crystalline.

"What do the stars look like?" I whispered in the stillness of the night air and I could feel by the swelling of his chest that Eric was smiling.

"They are glorious." He replied softly. "The sky is awash with brilliance, like millions of diamonds reflecting back the silver of the moon."

"And the moon?" I asked. "What does the moon look like?"

"She is nearly full." There was a hushed reverence in his voice as he studied the sky. "She is ageless and beautiful and everywhere her silvered gaze shines turns into something bathed in the light of grace."

"You have a beautiful heart." I told him as he settled me into the car and he chuckled.

"No, there are just some things I've been around long enough to appreciate. Like a beautiful woman." He leaned in through the door and captured my mouth with his own, his soft cool tongue plundering my own and leaving me breathless. With nothing else to distract me I could focus entirely on the sensation of his cool lips as they moved against mine, teasing and pulling, each caress more sensuous than the last.

"For shame!" I giggled when he pulled away. "Whatever will the neighbours say?" There was a brief silence and then he chuckled.

"Isabella looks concerned that you are blindfolded and being ravaged in the middle of the street but I do believe that Joe from number 7 is preparing a round of applause." I flushed crimson and he laughed, kissing me again before doing up my seatbelt and shutting the door.

"When we get home I intend to use that blindfold again." His voice was amused as he started the car and pulled away from the house.

"What on earth for? Surely if you put it on you'd just bump into stuff?"

"Not for me silly." Laughter bubbled up behind his tone. "For you."

"But then I'd bump into stuff." I really wasn't getting this and he roared with laughter.

"You won't be moving anywhere other than in the bed." He explained eventually, his voice full of mirth. "I'm going to tie you up so you can't move and then blindfold you and go over every inch of your skin with my tongue."

"Oh." My heart raced. "Oh my."

He chuckled. "I can hear your heart speeding. I assume the prospect excites you?"

"I'm not thinking about it." I said primly, knowing my cheeks were scarlet under the blindfold. He laughed again but didn't press the point. My traitorous libido was betting he was thinking about exactly what he'd like to do to me once I was totally at his mercy and wondering if I would enjoy it as much as my skipping hormones were telling me I would.

I tried to keep track of where we were going as we turned corners and went round bends. I knew the roads well so it wasn't too hard and when Eric stopped at a junction for slightly too long I smiled. "It's straight on for John O'Groats, left to Thurso or right for Duncansby Head." I offered helpfully. There was a long silence.

"How did you do that?" He demanded suspiciously and I grinned.

"I am exceedingly clever." I replied smugly and he growled, half in amusement and half in irritation.

"Well stop it. I'm trying to surprise you." He commanded and I grinned. It was too late – I already had some idea of where we were going. There was a place we had visited on his first trip here that was special to both of us and the fastest way to get to it was flying from Duncansby Head. Unsurprisingly he turned right.

As we drove the curving road up to the car park I leaned my cheek against the cool glass and let myself relax, trusting him to do whatever he thought he needed to. When we parked up he checked me over one more time.

"Are you sure you're going to be warm enough?" He fussed and I sighed.

"Yes Eric, I'll be fine. If I was wearing any more layers I'd be parboiled by now. Tuck me in your coat if it makes you feel better but quite frankly I'm not as fragile as you think."

There was a long silence.

"I don't think you're fragile." He said suddenly. "I just find that I want you to be comfortable."

I couldn't help chuckling. "Why do you say that like it's distasteful?" I laughed and I heard his coat rustle as he shrugged.

"It's not. It's just...novel." He sounded amused as he climbed out the car and came round to my side. There was still snow out here and I could hear it crunching under his feet. Lifting me out of the car he held me to him while he pressed the remote locking button and then the bottom fell out of my stomach as we soared into the sky.

It seemed longer this time, probably because I wasn't gawping at the beauty of Scapa Flow as we flew across it. I couldn't wait to see the islands in the snow on the way home, assuming he ever let me take this darned blindfold off. I could feel his chest moving slightly as he turned his head a couple of times like he'd lost where we were but then he huffed with satisfaction and before I could register the falling sensation I heard the snow as he settled into it.

"I'm going to put you down." He warned before tilting me slightly and letting me slide down his body gently until my feet hit the floor. He waited until I had my bearings and as I steadied myself I heard a weird humming noise. I tilted my head slightly – there was no doubt of where we were, I could feel the magic in my bones, but the humming was new and it confused me.

"Can I look now?" I asked, trying really hard not to sound like a kid and I could tell he was grinning.

"Stand still and let me take this blindfold off. Close your eyes." Obediently I closed them and the blindfold fell away. There was some crunching in the snow and then Eric told me to open my eyes.

I gasped. It felt like I'd stepped into Narnia or somewhere equally as magical. The hum was coming from small generators which were powering string after string of small paper lanterns that were hung from stone to stone in the massive Ring of Brodgar. It was all lit up like a fairy grotto and it was so beautiful it brought tears to my eyes.

"Oh my God! Eric!" I turned round to find him kneeling before me, a box in his hands, and instantly my legs wobbled. I knew what was coming.

He smiled gently, his handsome face upturned into the light of the moon making his eyes shine with frosted silver as he took my hand. "Rebecca." His thumb was tracing circles on my palm and it was immensely distracting, enough to make my knees stop wobbling at least.

I took a heaving breath. "Yes Eric?"

"I have some promises to make to you." He told me quietly as the lights twinkled around us in the darkness. "I swear to you, on my honour, on my heart, that within two years of our marriage you would be with child. If I cannot do it myself we will find another way. I swear to you, on my honour and on my heart, that you can remain a daywalker and we will make it work. I swear to you that whilst I hibernate during the summer months you will want for nothing and that you and our child will be safe. I promise not to crowd you, not to smother you, to let you do the things that make you happy." He kissed my hand. "Rebecca, heart of my heart, most beautiful of heart, will you do me the extraordinary honour of becoming my wife?"

I wanted to make some joke about not making promises that he couldn't keep but the truth was I was choked up with tears by the time he finished and just nodded, speechlessly as he presented me with the red diamond. For one stunned, hushed, breathless moment we just stared at each other and then he whooped, surging to his feet and crushing me to him as we soared up into the air in celebration leaving the glowing ring behind us.

"Eric!" I gasped, giggling. "I'm going to lose the stone!"

He swore loudly with a beaming smile and we came back to earth where I admired the diamond again and then I folded it up and tucked it back in his jacket.

"You are mine!" He declared fierce with joy, crushing me to his chest. "Mine!"

"I think you'll find I'm my own woman." I said drily, laughing again as he kissed me.

"You are always mine." His blue eyes twinkled in the lamp light and he swung me round in a waltz between the stones, the snow crunching beneath our feet as we spun round and round giggling like a pair of children.

When we had celebrated ourselves into exhaustion he tilted my chin and kissed me gently. "Let's go home." He suggested softly. "I love you Rebecca."

"And I love you, my big handsome Viking."

"Big and handsome huh?" He grinned. "For that, I'm going to get you home at double speed!"

And we soared into the sky leaving our fairy circle behind.

**Dear all, thanks for sticking with this story! A Viking Christmas is ending here. There will be a part three when Eric and Pam move to Scotland where the story will continue.**

**Thanks again for following and reviewing. *huggles all round***


End file.
